Mayor David Briley (Left) and Sheriff Daron Hall
Perhaps you noticed Daron Hall's recent tweets.
Take the one, for instance, in which Hall — who's served as Davidson County's sheriff since he was first elected in 2002 — criticized Mayor David Briley's sporadic leadership on the matter of The Scooters. There's also the one in which he implied that Briley isn't much of a leader at all. Minutes later he reiterated that point (albeit while misunderstanding a reference to the "He's Running" meme by the Scene's former editor and current contributor Steve Cavendish).
A couple days later Hall retweeted my recent Scene column, which was also critical of the mayor's performance.
The sheriff is not impressed, in other words.
Hall was already scheduled to talk to the Scene about that on Tuesday, and then, during Monday night's Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition candidates forum, Briley took a shot at him. Here's the relevant question and Briley's response:
In an era of increased immigration enforcement, cities across the country are taking bold measures to protect their residents from deportation. As mayor, would you make any changes to current policies, programs or practices to protect communities from deportations? If so, what would your top priorities be for your first year in office?Briley: We're supposed to be nonpartisan, but I'm gonna say, number one priority is to beat Donald Trump ...
We have things we can do locally to try and address the broken immigration system that we currently have. Our police are directed not to ask about immigration status. I know that is not exactly what’s happening out there on the street. I know there is work to be done. The chief has been directed to do more in that regard, but I will just tell you there is more work to be done on a person-to-person level, educating our officers about why asking those immigration questions are just not right.
Now, the biggest problem we have with immigration enforcement in Nashville takes place in the sheriff’s office, and that is outside the control of the mayor and outside the control of the city council, so I encourage you to remember that when it comes time.
Hall tells the Scene that Briley's comments "really frustrated" him, because he believes the mayor is uninformed about the sheriff's office and its policies related to immigration enforcement.
“He has never talked to me, ever, about immigration and a policy that we may have or the practice," Hall says. "He probably isn’t even familiar with how it even works here and what we really do. That’s not what, to me, a leader would do. I think a leader would find that information, and then you’re welcome to then go say whatever you want if you have a problem with it. It’s just a symptom of the issues, for me. It’s not personal, but it feels pandering.”
The sheriff doesn't have a great history when it comes to immigration issues, particularly in the eyes of activists. Most notably, Hall oversaw the office's participation in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's 287(g) program, through which the DCSO screened detainees for immigration violations. That program came under harsh scrutiny in 2008, when Juana Villegas was arrested in Nashville after a traffic stop. She was nine months pregnant and living in the country undocumented. And because of the DCSO's cooperation with ICE, she was held without bond for six days. While in custody, Villegas gave birth to a baby boy while chained to a hospital bed. The city settled the case in 2013 for nearly half a million dollars.
The mayor's office declined to comment on Hall's criticism of Briley's leadership in general. But press secretary Thomas Mulgrew did respond to Hall's statement about Briley's comments at the TIRRC forum.
"If Sheriff Hall had attended the event, he would have heard the previous comments regarding the Sheriff Office’s relationship with ICE and the role it plays in the separation of immigrant families, and that it was of great concern to the community," Mulgrew said in an email.
Hall emphasizes that the sheriff's office ended its participation in the 287(g) program in 2012 and says he no longer voluntarily complies with detainer requests from ICE. In the past, the sheriff's office would hold people arrested locally to allow the feds to investigate possible immigration violations. Now, Hall says, his office will do so only in response to a warrant from federal officials. The DCSO does have a contract with the federal government under which federal prisoners can be housed in the Nashville jail. Hall says only 0.2 percent of the booked population has anything to do with ICE.
Briley has his own history when it comes to immigration, though. When he ran for mayor in 2007, he used a fatal drunk driving incident involving an undocumented immigrant to emphasize the need for immigration enforcement. He supported the 287(g) program and said the federal government should have a local immigration office.
In his conversation with the Scene, Hall said Briley has failed to follow through on commitments he made to the sheriff on more than one occasion and questioned whether Briley's experience adequately prepared him to be mayor.
“I’m somewhat of a political junkie, and when I say that I’m just talking about sitting back, I’ve been here a long time, I’ve watched different things happen," Hall says. "In fairness, David was a legislative person and a lawyer. But that’s a lot different than being in an executive role. And if you just look around the country and the states — typically governors make pretty good presidents and mayors make pretty good governors, but legislative type of people aren’t bad people, but it’s a big jump to have to go to an executive and have to say no to people, and yes too.”
Hall says he doesn't plan to endorse a candidate in the mayoral race.
“I don’t typically do that, because whoever’s in that office I would hope I could find a way to work with, and I don’t know that there’s a reason why I can’t work with [Briley]," he says. "But I’m not satisfied with some things that he’s done and I certainly don’t appreciate what he did [Monday] night.”
