Fifteen government officials shared one podium on Thursday afternoon to announce a new Nashville-based joint Homeland Security Task Force at the Fred D. Thompson Federal Courthouse.
At times, sentences were strewn with too many acronyms for a civilian to keep straight — acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Robert McGuire convened agents and representatives from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to emphasize collaboration between city, state and federal governments.
Trump’s DHS secretary dodges questions on transparency, says Mayor O’Connell ‘doesn’t deserve to be in any office’
The task force will operate with a broad scope of work, including investigations related to fentanyl use and trafficking, illegal firearms, transnational gangs including MS-13 and immigration enforcement. In his successful 2024 reelection bid, President Donald Trump dedicated unrelenting energy to these topics, and they mirror the priorities of his Department of Justice.
“The idea behind the Homeland Security Task Force is to bring resources together for the betterment of the community to try to lower the amount of fentanyl trafficking and fentanyl overdoses, to lower the amount of gang violence, to stop the flow of illegal drugs and firearms into our community,” McGuire said in opening remarks.
McGuire built a criminal case against wrongfully deported Maryland man Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia by alleging Abrego’s connections to transnational gang activity; the case is being litigated in the same courthouse as Thursday’s press conference and subject to a claim of vindictive prosecution. McGuire declined to answer the Scene’s question about who directed the formation of this new task force.
"I can't remember how it came to me," McGuire later said.
Agencies frequently collaborate on investigations and share information via crime databases like the FBI’s National Crime Information Center. Following Thursday's press conference, MNPD Chief John Drake told the Scene that the city — which does not currently have what's known as a 287(g) agreement between the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Homeland Security — will focus on policing violent crime, not immigration status.
Immigration roundups terrorize South Nashville and take residents with no criminal history
“ We don't report immigration status,” Drake tells the Scene. “All we do is the criminal case. Guns, drugs, violence.”
The task force could pave the way for informal participation, as the city did during a May 2025 spike in immigration-related arrests via state trooper dragnet operations in Nashville.
McGuire closed on Thursday by saying Nashville’s new task force is among several nationwide with similarly broad scopes.
" I don't know if we're first," McGuire said. "I can tell you, I think we're the best. I know that this is something you're probably gonna see more of in this district and other places.”
