NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Nashville officials are pushing to adopt sanctuary city-like standards in response to President Donald Trump’s policies on immigration.
Metro Councilmen Bob Mendes and Colby Sledge were surrounded by immigrants, some of whom are in the country illegally, as they made a case for their legislation Wednesday during a news conference in the liberal-leaning capital of Tennessee, a red Southern state.
Mendes said the policy change has to strike a balance, and contends that it would not qualify Nashville as a sanctuary city under the U.S. Department of Justice.
“It’s such a powerful, moral obligation that we feel to make all our neighbors feel as safe here as possible,” Mendes said. “But we have to do it in the context of what is state law and what is federal law.”
President Donald Trump issued an executive order to cut funding from sanctuary cities that limit cooperation with U.S. immigration authorities, only to have a judge block the effort. Trump has asked the judge to reconsider. At the state level, potential candidates in the 2018 governor’s race have said cities should be punished if they don’t cooperate with federal immigration officials.
According to the Nashville proposal, unless it’s required under federal or state law or a court order, the city couldn’t help enforce federal immigration laws, respond to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests or review someone’s citizenship.
It says metro government would only honor immigration-related detention requests under a warrant.
A related proposal seeks to bar immigrant detention at Davidson County jail by renegotiating the city’s 20-year-old contract with the federal government.
The city would be the first with such ordinances in the state, according to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, which helped draft the proposals.
But Mayor Megan Barry said she doesn’t think the legislation would change metro government’s current practice of not engaging in immigration-enforcement activities.
Both proposals drew concerns from Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall, an elected Democrat, who called the issue “hyper-political.”
He said not housing detainees at the Davidson County jail would not prevent federal immigration officials from making arrests. Instead, they would detain immigrants in Georgia, away from family members, he said.
He said the number of immigrant detainees is low at the Davidson County jail, and has not increased since Trump took office.
“There is no data to support that there’s an increase and that there’s going to be mass deportations; that’s surely not happening here,” Hall said. “I have said many times we would be responsible with that, if we saw such a wave occurring, then we would take measures to ensure that that wasn’t going to happen on a continuous basis.”
Still, uncertainty and fear of deportation under Trump’s tough stance on immigration has changed everyday life for many families.
Soledad Vargas, 40, came to Nashville from Mexico with her husband and oldest daughter, 21-year-old Zacnite, about two decades ago.
Zacnite Vargas is in the country under former President Barack Obama’s order protecting children in her situation from deportation for two years, while letting them work. Her two sisters are U.S. citizens. Every time their parents get behind the wheel of a car without a driver’s license, they fear they will be arrested and deported.
“I cannot imagine my life without my parents,” Zacnite Vargas said at Wednesday’s news conference. “They are my best friends. It’s been hard for us. It’s a fear that thousands of families in Nashville face.”
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