Immigration enforcement has become an issue in Nashville’s mayoral race. Here’s where the candidates stand. – The Tennessean

Immigration enforcement has become an issue in Nashville’s mayoral race. Here’s where the candidates stand.  The Tennessean

The issue of immigration enforcement is now front and center in the Nashville mayoral runoff election.

The recent surge of immigration enforcement efforts has refocused Nashville’s runoff race for mayor, bringing a national debate to Music City. 

Mayor David Briley is now jostling for an advantage in a race that by many marks shows at-large Metro Councilman John Cooper with the clearest path to victory. Briley has seized on the immigration issue and pushed efforts he says will protect and invest in Nashville’s immigrant families.

It is a shift in a campaign that until recently focused largely on city finances, improving education and how the city will continue to attract business to Nashville.

The two men looking to lead the city for the next four years agree, to varying degrees, that local resources should not be used to aid federal immigration enforcement.

But while Briley is touting his support for immigrant families the runoff campaign — including via a Spanish-language video encouraging them to know their rights — Cooper has given measured, limited remarks. 

Pro-immigrant voters and candidates won big in the Aug. 1 general election, with 20 of the 21 candidates endorsed by the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition’s political advocacy arm, TIRRC Votes, elected or advancing to the runoff.

“Together, we took a huge step toward electing a city government that will pass bold, progressive policies to defend our values and protect our families,” the group said in a statement. 

TIRRC Votes did not endorse a candidate in the mayoral runoff, choosing instead to dedicate its resources to electing a historically diverse and progressive council that can “drive a pro-immigrant agenda in the city.” 

Early voting will run through Sept. 7 ahead of the Sept. 12 runoff. 

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Briley: Immigrants make city better, says his 2007 views wrong

To talk about Briley and his record of standing up for immigration rights, it’s important to go back to 2007 in his first run of mayor.

Largely viewed as one of the most progressive candidates in that race, the then-at-large council member made a sudden change to his campaign after a fatal drunk driving incident involving an immigrant who entered the country illegally. 

What followed was an ad and a policy paper, the Nashville Scene reported in 2007, in which Briley vowed to crack down on drunken driving by immigrants living in a country illegally, and “zero tolerance” for employers who hire undocumented workers.

He supported the 287(g) program, a formal agreement between local jurisdictions and the federal government that deputizes local law enforcement as immigration agents.

“We should offer Sheriff (Daron) Hall all the resources he needs to continue to implement this program successfully,” Briley said at the time.

Hall has said in the past he has no plans to again participate in the 287(g) program. 

But these days, the relationship between Briley and Hall is strained and the mayor criticized the sheriff at a TIRRC forum this summer for assisting federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. 

Briley told The Tennessean that 12 years ago he “didn’t reflect carefully enough” on what he said in his campaign to make it “accurately reflect” his personal views. 

“It is abundantly clear to me that immigrants make our city better in every way, and my actions and words for the past decade clearly demonstrate my beliefs about this,” Briley said in a statement. “I have always maintained that diversity brings strength to a community like Nashville.” 

Since his 2007 race, Briley campaign spokesperson Morey Hill said the mayor has shown in various ways his commitment Nashville immigrants.

Briley helped defeat the “English Only” campaign to change the Metro Charter, worked with MyCity Academy to help new Americans get involved with Metro government, personally helped residents complete their naturalization forms to become U.S. citizens and allocated direct appropriations to TIRRC and the Hispanic Chamber in Metro’s budget. 

Briley is set to sign an executive order next week outlining how Metro departments and employees should respond to requests from ICE agents following reports by WSMV that Nashville probation officers actively worked to help ICE arrest and detain individuals under probation supervision. 

He has also asked Interim Metropolitan Auditor Gina Pruitt to conduct a performance audit of the General Sessions Probation Department, calling the reported actions “absolutely unacceptable” and undermining for the public’s trust.

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Cooper: Briley’s actions show he’s not aware

But Cooper said the mayor’s actions have shown he’s not aware of what’s happening in his own house. 

“Mayor Briley’s decision to appoint an internal auditor makes it clear that he doesn’t understand what is happening in his own administration,” Cooper said.

Though Cooper signed a Metro Council letter also calling for an investigation into the reports about the probation department, he did not comment on the underlying issue of probation officers working with ICE. 

“I signed the letter because it asks for a proper and fair review to determine if media reports are true,” he told The Tennessean.

Briley and Cooper also have taken different approaches to how the city should handle a contract between the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office and the federal government, in which the sheriff holds people on behalf of ICE. 

During a campaign event with New Americans and Latinos last week, Briley said he would look to not renew the contract with ICE when it expires in 2020.

Meanwhile, Cooper said he would work with the sheriff to interpret the agreement “narrowly as possible so that Metro resources and local law enforcement are not being used to enforce federal immigration law.”

A July standoff between Hermitage neighbors and ICE raised more questions about the role Nashville authorities play in immigration enforcement. 

About a dozen community members formed a human chain around a van to prevent federal agents from arresting a father and 12-year-old boy. ICE called Metro Nashville Police Department officers for assistance, but officers sat in the street monitoring the event. The ICE agents ultimately left the scene without making an arrest.

“I am proud of these neighbors and their community for their actions this morning,” Cooper tweeted following the incident. “This kind of disruption is unhelpful and harmful to our community on so many levels.” 

“Our position on this issue has been clear and consistent: local resources should be spent on local issues,” Cooper said in a statement. “Interactions between the sheriff’s department and the federal government are governed by an agreement … It is time to review that agreement not only with the sheriff’s office but also with members of the community.

“We need to create a unified Metro policy to manage this issue in a coherent way.”

Cooper said because this agreement is not specific to housing ICE prisoners but is “for the housing, safekeeping and subsistence of adult male and female federal prisoners,” he would need to ensure that that there are “appropriate agreements” in place to house federal prisoners being held for federal crimes.

He used housing inmates going to court for drug trafficking or as a material witness for the DEA as an example, as well as holding non-immigrant prisoners for federal agencies to “ensure the safety of the community when these individuals are arrested and going to court in Nashville.”

Yihyun Jeong covers politics in Nashville for USA TODAY NETWORK – TENNESSEE. Reach her at yjeong@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @yihyun_jeong.

Published 1:59 PM EDT Aug 30, 2019