Nashville council member sues city over mayor’s executive order on immigration – The Tennessean
Nashville council member sues city over mayor’s executive order on immigration The Tennessean
Nashville Mayor David Briley signed an executive order last week urging lawmakers to overturn HB 2315, a state law that went into effect this year.
Metro Council member Steve Glover is suing the city over Mayor David Briley’s recent executive order that calls on state lawmakers to repeal an anti-sanctuary city law.
Briley signed an executive order last week urging lawmakers to overturn HB 2315, a state law that went into effect this year and ends local governments’ access to state economic development funds if they do not comply with a ban on “sanctuary city” policies.
Glover, who is running for one of the four remaining countywide at-large council seats in Thursday’s runoff, filed his lawsuit Monday after holding a news conference on the steps of the Metro Courthouse.
The city, Glover said, is at risk of losing jobs and state funding because of Briley’s “irresponsible actions.” He called the mayor’s order political grandstanding that creates a “culture of lawlessness in our streets.”
“I believe that the (executive order) does put our people, our taxpayers and potential jobs in jeopardy,” Glover said, adding that he’s had conversations with state Rep. Jay D. Reedy, R-Erin, who last week released a letter in response to Briley’s order.
The letter, which got signatures for 20 Republican state lawmakers, states Nashville is “compromising the public interest by failing to comply” with the state law.
“A lot of things are very questionable about this,” Glover said, adding that his own money is being spent to figure out if Briley’s order is a “political ploy.”
“’I’m confident that if this was a ploy, this will smoke that out,” Glover said. “If it wasn’t, we’ll figure out if there was legal standing or not.”
Briley’s executive order does not violate state law in any way, Thomas Mulgrew, a Briley spokesperson, said in a statement Monday. It proposes actions that would be taken if the law is repealed and others that can be taken now within existing law, he said.
“Councilman Glover, supported by Carol Swain and failed mayoral candidate David Fox — among other conservatives — has consistently been a far-right actor on the Council,” Mulgrew said. “This is nothing more than a cheap political stunt ahead of his attempt at being elected to at-large this Thursday.”
Briley’s order, which also outlines how Nashville should handle requests from federal immigration enforcement, comes after reports that the city’s probation department was actively cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents seeking to deport immigrants in the country illegally by sharing information on probationers.
It also comes well after the state law passed in the state House and Senate. While some have applauded the move, others have called it a last-ditch effort to win votes.
Briley is running for reelection in the mayoral election Thursday against At-large Metro Council member John Cooper. The recent surge of immigration enforcement efforts has refocused Nashville’s runoff race for mayor, bringing a national debate to Music City.
The executive order also requires city departments to track when they receive requests for help from federal immigration agents and the outcome of those requests.
The order, Mulgrew said in a statement Monday, will make Nashville safer for all residents while allowing the city to “lawfully track immigration-related activity in our city.”
Cooper said if he is elected, every executive order will be reviewed.
“I look forward to that happening, but we’re not there yet,” he said in a statement.
Metro Council member Colby Sledge, who has led council efforts in recent years to pass “Nashville Together” ordinances — measures that sought to prevent Nashville from using city funds and facilities to enforce federal immigration law — called Glover’s lawsuit “another gross political stunt against a group of Nashvillians he thinks he can push around.”
“This is the same guy who tried to criminalize Contributor vendors,” Sledge said in a statement. “There are much better candidates to vote for on Thursday than a desperate bully.”
At-large council member Bob Mendes, who attended the news conference Monday, also criticized the lawsuit.
“It’s the Seinfeld of lawsuits, a lawsuit about nothing,” he said. “The policy by the mayor last week basically reaffirmed some stuff Metro is already doing.”
The city cannot prohibit Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall, who controls the city’s jails and is an independently elected official, from cooperating with federal authorities on immigration. The agency has a contract with the federal government in which the sheriff holds people on behalf of ICE, among other agencies.
Although the executive order doesn’t specifically list the sheriff’s office, the administration said Metro is also requesting the sheriff’s office to notify the city of any requests by federal immigration enforcement.
Hall slammed the order last week, calling it misleading to the public and confusing to public safety employees.
The Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition has said the executive order is not enough but slammed Glover’s lawsuit.
“In a desperate attempt to gain traction in the final days of the election, Steve Glover is putting his own political interests above those of residents in our county,” Lisa Sherman-Nikolaus, policy director at TIRRC Votes, said in a statement. “If Glover is concerned about taxpayers, he should withdraw this lawsuit before a single cent of public money is used to get this frivolous case dismissed.”
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 6:10 PM EDT Sep 9, 2019
