Latest news with #BelongingFund
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
‘Antioch bows to no council member': Some constituents call for Metro Councilmember's resignation following immigration remarks
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Members of the public spoke up about a Metro Councilmember's statements regarding immigration. Metro Councilmember David Benton, who represents District 28, was present at a press conference with Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles wherein Ogles confirmed a federal investigation into the Nashville Mayor's Office over allegedly 'aiding and abetting' illegal immigration. At the press conference, Benton also called for a state or federal audit of the Belonging Fund to 'clarify whether any funds are inadvertently supporting' illegal immigration. 📧 Have breaking news come to you: → The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee had established the Belonging Fund in conjunction with Metro Nashville following Immigrations and Customs Enforcement activitiy in the city. According to Metro, it's meant to give money to nonprofit organizations helping with things like housing instability, childcare or other urgent needs — but not legal services. The CFMT has said that no government dollars have been used for the fund, just donations from individuals or private organizations. 'Stop making a mockery of Memorial Day. Defend Nashville. Defend Tennessee. Defend this country, and stop the invasion,' Benton said during the press conference. Additionally, Metro Council's Immigrant Caucus posted a statement about Benton's press conference, criticizing other remarks he made about immigration and 'invasion.' 'Councilmember Benton does not deserve to hold public office,' the statement reads, in part. 'His conduct and comments are unbecoming of an elected official, particularly one representing a district with a significant Latino population.' ⏩ 'Antioch bows to no council member, to no Congressman, to no king,' Trent Benge, an Antioch resident, said at Tuesday night's meeting. 'Councilmember Benton must resign, and if he won't, we've got our work cut out for us.' News 2 received the following statement from Benton: 'I appreciate everyone having a right to their point of view, including myself. It's important that both sides respect each other enough to respond to what they say and not what they heard they said. Here's what some ignored to make their point. I have always said I support Legal immigration 100%. I love all my constituents and answer every call without asking someone's race or immigration status. That's up to law enforcement. Organizations standing against me should use that energy helping their members learn the path to legal status to avoid immigration enforcement. If citizens, entities, or other people even encourage an illegal alien to remain in the U.S. they are violating US code 1324 and can be arrested themselves. That was bipartisan legislation from 1995 supported by Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer. I understand some in my community are afraid. As much as I care, I must support Federal law enforcement. The State is developing an immigration department as well. We as leaders should not be cruel and give these in danger of enforcement actions a false sense of security that we have the authority to shield them from Immigration enforcement. I would also encourage these leaders to give me their list of laws they want me to ignore. I will continue to serve everyone in my District as I have been doing.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
What to know about how Mayor O'Connell responded to Nashville ICE operation
As a weeklong U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation continued in south Nashville in early May, Mayor Freddie O'Connell made it clear where he stands. While ICE and the Tennessee Highway Patrol collaborated to make 468 traffic stops and arrest nearly 200 immigrants, O'Connell criticized them for causing "deep community harm." And as the sweeps continued throughout the week, O'Connell and Metro Legal Director Wally Dietz repeatedly called for transparency from ICE about who exactly had been arrested and what they'd been charged with. Ultimately, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security named six of the 196 people arrested during the sweeps. O'Connell also updated an executive order requiring city departments to report communications with federal immigration officials to the mayor's office, and addressed community and Metro Nashville Council concerns about whether the Metro Nashville Police Department was involved in the operation. It's all culminated in an investigation that's now underway at the federal level, based on a call from U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, to determine whether the mayor had been "obstructing ICE operations." Here's what to know about how O'Connell responded to the Nashville ICE operation. Ogles has made it clear that the amended Executive Order 30 is key to his complaints. It's one of a few documents and communications he's seeking in the congressional investigation. But what does the order actually do? Executive Order 30 isn't new — in fact, it's well over a year old, having first been issued in January 2024. But it's re-emerged in the wake of the ICE operation because O'Connell amended it to allow for a shorter timeline for reporting. The order requires city departments to report communications with federal immigration authorities to the mayor's office. Emergency services departments like MNPD, the Nashville Fire Department and the Office of Emergency Management must report within one business day, while all other departments have three days to report communications "regarding an activity outside regular policies/procedures." Communications involving non-emergency departments related to modifying a department's policies or practices, meanwhile, must be reported "with sufficient time for the mayor's office to assess and respond to such proposed modifications, including seeking community input if appropriate." The executive order also requires city departments to designate one person who's responsible for collecting and transmitting immigration communications to the mayor's office, which would later be posted online for transparency. It also calls on the Department of Human Resources and Metro Legal to develop a training program for reporting immigration communications. Early on in the ICE operation, O'Connell was joined by Hal Cato, the CEO of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, to announced the Belonging Fund. Cato said funds could go toward addressing childcare and transportation costs, housing assistance and food insecurity. Like the executive order, the fund has been the subject of recent scrutiny — Metro Nashville Council Member David Benton, who appeared with Ogles at a press conference on Memorial Day, has called for a state or federal audit of the fund. But the fund itself was established by the Community Foundation, not the city, and the foundation's website states that donations come solely from individual donors and private organizations. The website description further clarifies that the fund "provides financial support to nonprofit organizations offering emergency assistance to immigrants in our region during times of crisis." While announcing the fund, O'Connell said it wouldn't be intended to support immigration legal services and added that the city needed to make certain whether it could donate to the fund directly. Based on the website description — which states that "no taxpayer dollars are being used in the administration or distribution of this fund" — it appears that answer was no. Nashville's mayor has not shied away from criticism of the ICE operation, or how the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has gone about publicizing information about the people arrested during the sweeps. At an appearance with New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, for example, O'Connell decried the ICE presence as 'unwelcome visitors from Washington D.C.' and once again demanded that law enforcement provide the names of the people arrested as part of the sweeps. He's also indicated plenty of times, including at the event with Booker, that he's been in constant communication with Dietz, the legal director, about which actions might leave him susceptible to retaliation. 'I will tell you, in America, in this moment, in my hometown, I never expected to be having to ask my legal director multiple times a week some version of the question, 'If I do this will I get arrested?'' O'Connell said earlier in May. Regarding the amended executive order, O'Connell has also previously told reporters that it was "an open question" whether it would have legally allowed the city to publicize an impending immigration operation. At a special meeting on May 7, council members learned that a federal agent contacted Nashville's Department of Emergency Communications to request extra police patrols at Nashville's ICE facility on Brick Church Park Drive ahead of the operation, but there wasn't a sufficient process in place to inform department leadership and other city offices of the impending ICE action. That informed a key criticism from Metro Nashville Council members and community members who expressed concern about whether MNPD officers were involved in ICE's operation — that if the executive order had been followed in the first place, there would've been a greater awareness among city departments ahead of the May operation. 'I don't know that there would have been considerable change, but I think instead of asking questions about what people knew, I think both (Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake) and I would have been able to at least make sure that within departments we knew that there was an uptick in federal enforcement,' O'Connell said on May 9. As for whether other city departments have been involved, the short answer is no. During the May 7 special meeting, multiple city officials asserted that MNPD officers indeed were not involved in the ICE sweeps. That's a message O'Connell and Drake continued to share in the days following the meeting. Outside of responses from O'Connell and members of the Metro Nashville Council, Nashvillians have also been vocal. The May 7 special meeting featured a packed meeting gallery, filled with community members voicing their frustrations. A recent Vanderbilt University poll gauged community opinion on the issue of immigration, as well. A majority of respondents overall, 61%, said they'd support deporting individuals who are living in the United States illegally if they have a criminal record unrelated to their immigration status, but only 26% of respondents said the same even if an individual lacks a criminal background. Regardless of criminal status, a much larger share of Republicans supported deportations in both cases, at 87% and 70% respectively. Democrat respondents, meanwhile, supported deportations for undocumented immigrants with a criminal background at a rate of 46%, and only 9% for those with no criminal background. In the poll, the highest share of respondents overall — 43% — said Nashville should actively resist efforts by the federal government to carry out deportations. The next highest share of 35% of respondents said cities like Nashville should do nothing and allow the federal government to enforce federal laws, and the smallest group of 22% of respondents said Nashville should actively assist efforts by the federal government to carry out deportations. Democrats and Republicans responded with a similar share to the dueling questions of supporting or resisting immigration efforts — 62% of Democrat respondents said the city should resist federal deportation efforts, compared to just 6% of Republicans, and 61% of Republican respondents said the city should help the federal government, compared to just 6% of Democrats. Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him at ahornbostel@ Get Davidson County news delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: What to know about how mayor responded to Nashville ICE operation
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
What to know about how Mayor O'Connell responded to Nashville ICE operation
As a weeklong U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation continued in south Nashville in early May, Mayor Freddie O'Connell made it clear where he stands. While ICE and the Tennessee Highway Patrol collaborated to make 468 traffic stops and arrest nearly 200 immigrants, O'Connell criticized them for causing "deep community harm." And as the sweeps continued throughout the week, O'Connell and Metro Legal Director Wally Dietz repeatedly called for transparency from ICE about who exactly had been arrested and what they'd been charged with. Ultimately, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security named six of the 196 people arrested during the sweeps. O'Connell also updated an executive order requiring city departments to report communications with federal immigration officials to the mayor's office, and addressed community and Metro Nashville Council concerns about whether the Metro Nashville Police Department was involved in the operation. It's all culminated in an investigation that's now underway at the federal level, based on a call from U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, to determine whether the mayor had been "obstructing ICE operations." Here's what to know about how O'Connell responded to the Nashville ICE operation. Ogles has made it clear that the amended Executive Order 30 is key to his complaints. It's one of a few documents and communications he's seeking in the congressional investigation. But what does the order actually do? Executive Order 30 isn't new — in fact, it's well over a year old, having first been issued in January 2024. But it's re-emerged in the wake of the ICE operation because O'Connell amended it to allow for a shorter timeline for reporting. The order requires city departments to report communications with federal immigration authorities to the mayor's office. Emergency services departments like MNPD, the Nashville Fire Department and the Office of Emergency Management must report within one business day, while all other departments have three days to report communications "regarding an activity outside regular policies/procedures." Communications involving non-emergency departments related to modifying a department's policies or practices, meanwhile, must be reported "with sufficient time for the mayor's office to assess and respond to such proposed modifications, including seeking community input if appropriate." The executive order also requires city departments to designate one person who's responsible for collecting and transmitting immigration communications to the mayor's office, which would later be posted online for transparency. It also calls on the Department of Human Resources and Metro Legal to develop a training program for reporting immigration communications. Early on in the ICE operation, O'Connell was joined by Hal Cato, the CEO of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, to announced the Belonging Fund. Cato said funds could go toward addressing childcare and transportation costs, housing assistance and food insecurity. Like the executive order, the fund has been the subject of recent scrutiny — Metro Nashville Council Member David Benton, who appeared with Ogles at a press conference on Memorial Day, has called for a state or federal audit of the fund. But the fund itself was established by the Community Foundation, not the city, and the foundation's website states that donations come solely from individual donors and private organizations. The website description further clarifies that the fund "provides financial support to nonprofit organizations offering emergency assistance to immigrants in our region during times of crisis." While announcing the fund, O'Connell said it wouldn't be intended to support immigration legal services and added that the city needed to make certain whether it could donate to the fund directly. Based on the website description — which states that "no taxpayer dollars are being used in the administration or distribution of this fund" — it appears that answer was no. Nashville's mayor has not shied away from criticism of the ICE operation, or how the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has gone about publicizing information about the people arrested during the sweeps. At an appearance with New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, for example, O'Connell decried the ICE presence as 'unwelcome visitors from Washington D.C.' and once again demanded that law enforcement provide the names of the people arrested as part of the sweeps. He's also indicated plenty of times, including at the event with Booker, that he's been in constant communication with Dietz, the legal director, about which actions might leave him susceptible to retaliation. 'I will tell you, in America, in this moment, in my hometown, I never expected to be having to ask my legal director multiple times a week some version of the question, 'If I do this will I get arrested?'' O'Connell said earlier in May. Regarding the amended executive order, O'Connell has also previously told reporters that it was "an open question" whether it would have legally allowed the city to publicize an impending immigration operation. At a special meeting on May 7, council members learned that a federal agent contacted Nashville's Department of Emergency Communications to request extra police patrols at Nashville's ICE facility on Brick Church Park Drive ahead of the operation, but there wasn't a sufficient process in place to inform department leadership and other city offices of the impending ICE action. That informed a key criticism from Metro Nashville Council members and community members who expressed concern about whether MNPD officers were involved in ICE's operation — that if the executive order had been followed in the first place, there would've been a greater awareness among city departments ahead of the May operation. 'I don't know that there would have been considerable change, but I think instead of asking questions about what people knew, I think both (Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake) and I would have been able to at least make sure that within departments we knew that there was an uptick in federal enforcement,' O'Connell said on May 9. As for whether other city departments have been involved, the short answer is no. During the May 7 special meeting, multiple city officials asserted that MNPD officers indeed were not involved in the ICE sweeps. That's a message O'Connell and Drake continued to share in the days following the meeting. Outside of responses from O'Connell and members of the Metro Nashville Council, Nashvillians have also been vocal. The May 7 special meeting featured a packed meeting gallery, filled with community members voicing their frustrations. A recent Vanderbilt University poll gauged community opinion on the issue of immigration, as well. A majority of respondents overall, 61%, said they'd support deporting individuals who are living in the United States illegally if they have a criminal record unrelated to their immigration status, but only 26% of respondents said the same even if an individual lacks a criminal background. Regardless of criminal status, a much larger share of Republicans supported deportations in both cases, at 87% and 70% respectively. Democrat respondents, meanwhile, supported deportations for undocumented immigrants with a criminal background at a rate of 46%, and only 9% for those with no criminal background. In the poll, the highest share of respondents overall — 43% — said Nashville should actively resist efforts by the federal government to carry out deportations. The next highest share of 35% of respondents said cities like Nashville should do nothing and allow the federal government to enforce federal laws, and the smallest group of 22% of respondents said Nashville should actively assist efforts by the federal government to carry out deportations. Democrats and Republicans responded with a similar share to the dueling questions of supporting or resisting immigration efforts — 62% of Democrat respondents said the city should resist federal deportation efforts, compared to just 6% of Republicans, and 61% of Republican respondents said the city should help the federal government, compared to just 6% of Democrats. Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him at ahornbostel@ Get Davidson County news delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: What to know about how mayor responded to Nashville ICE operation
Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Dem mayor accused of helping illegal immigrants escape ICE
Nashville's Democrat mayor Freddie O'Connell is under federal investigation, accused of helping illegal immigrants escape ICE. The probe has been confirmed by U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, who explained the federal inquiry will look into whether the city used federal dollars 'in criminal enterprise' related to immigration. He believes the mayor - who is a vocal opponent of ICE raids - may have been using taxpayer dollars to block deportation efforts. 'If you're helping violent gangs destroy Tennessee by obstructing ICE — you belong behind bars,' the Republican posted online Monday. The mayor pointed out federal officials had 'shown us no proof' that those arrested in the early May operation were people 'with criminal histories or criminal intent.' The immigration sweeps took part in largely Hispanic areas of Nashville. 'We don't even know the names of who they've arrested, much less the charges,' the mayor told WKRN at the time. 'What we have seen is a violation of due process and the defiance of court orders.' The Democrat has denied any wrongdoing. He is instead pushing support for the Belonging Fund - an initiative he launched to help migrants being deported.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nashville mayor disputes claims he obstructed ICE agents
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell is standing firm against claims that he and other Metro leaders obstructed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who have reportedly arrested at least 196 'criminal illegal aliens' during an operation with Tennessee Highway Patrol this month. U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) has accused the mayor and other city officials of repeatedly obstructing ICE operations. PREVIOUS | TN congressman says he will request investigation into Nashville mayor over alleged 'repeated obstruction of ICE operations' 'I will be asking the Committee of Homeland Security and Judiciary to be looking into the mayor of Nashville and any collusion or impeding of federal authorities and conducting their work in the city of Nashville,' Ogles said in an exchange with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on Wednesday, May 14. 'I would also encourage this committee and judiciary to look at other leaders — municipal leaders across the country — as they obstruct this administration, this Madame Secretary and her employees in doing their constitutional job, which is [to] uphold the rule of law.' During the mayoral roundtable on Friday, May 16, O'Connell said he didn't have any comment about the accusation and that he is in daily talks with Metro's legal department. He also discussed the growing Belonging Fund to support Nashville immigrants during moments of crisis, which has surpassed $245,000 in donations. SEE ALSO | 'We're going to take a look': TN congressman doubles down on call for investigation into Nashville mayor 'The Belonging Fund supports families known to be impacted as a result of activities related to immigration, but the entire point is family supports, cost of living, those kinds of things,' O'Connell said. 'It's not even intended to be about legal services, so it is about people who have identified food insecurity as a result of possibly losing somebody who was an earner in the household, it is about childcare, it is about basic family needs.' In addition, O'Connell stressed the importance of working with both state and federal Republican lawmakers because of the close relationship they have in making government work. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
