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MIJENTE PETITION: you can find the petition at bit.ly/investigatemnpd

PETITION TITLE: Investigate Metro Nashville Police Department Collaboration with ICE

Whom are you petitioning: Mayor Briley and Nashville Metro Council

What do you want them to do: Investigate Nashville police decision to assist ICE in a local raid intended to separate a Hermitage father from his family.

On Monday July 22nd, ICE agents attempted to detain a father and son in Hermitage. ICE agents called Metro Nashville Police Department and requested assistance in detaining the family, and Nashville Police Officers. The police officers stood by ICE for several hours as the father and son refused to exit the van.

At one point ICE agents intimidated the father and son by stating that if they didn’t exit the vehicle- they would have Nashville police officers arrest him, saying, “We’ll just call the cops and they’ll arrest you, and then when they’re done with you in the jail, then we’ll get you”, and threatening to come back for his wife. You can watch this video that was recorded by the courageous dad while he was surrounded by ICE.

We demand an investigation of Metro Nashville Police Department's decision to accompany ICE.

After Monday’s thwarted ICE arrest, Metro Nashville Police Department, along with Mayor Briley, released a statement saying the presence of Metro Police served as crowd control and as a “peacemaker”. We know from video accounts and statements of our responders that MNPD showed up when ICE called them to assist with the arrest, long before there was a “crowd”. Additionally, MNPD repeatedly and falsely informed responding friends and neighbors that ICE had the correct warrant, when they did not.

The actions by Metro Nashville police officers go against MNPD stated policy, which indicates the department does not actively collaborate with ICE. We demand an audit of MNPD practices that waste Metro Government resources by deploying public servants in acts of terror against the communities and neighborhoods they serve.

We are calling on our Mayor, our Metro Council Members, and those running for public office to hold MNPD accountable by investigating the practices and procedures that led to the actions and presence of MNPD officers in support of ICE agents during the operation on Monday.

We also are calling on Metro Nashville Council Members to vigorously pursue policy changes that will prevent further cooperation between MNPD and ICE that puts Nashville families at risk. It does not serve the safety of our neighborhoods for our local law enforcement resources and personnel to be deployed in support of a deportation campaign against immigrant members of Nashville’s communities.

Other organizations signing on to the effort include:

• Community Oversight Now
• Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights
• Mijente National
• Workers Dignity
• Mijente Louisville
• Siembra North Carolina
• Congress of Day Laborers,
• Showing Up for Racial Justice - Nashville
• No Exceptions Prison Collective
• Nashville Indivisible
• Middle Tennessee Indivisible

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Email: TNAntiRacistNetwork@gmail.com

Monday, July 22, 2019 COALITION OF ORGANIZATIONS DISPUTE SHERIFF HALL’S CLAIM THAT HE DOES NOT HOUSE ICE’S PRISONERS

Davidson County Jail remains one of the biggest ICE detention facilities in Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall’s press statement Monday claiming that he does not house people arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is patently false and misleading, according to a coalition of immigrant rights, social justice and anti-racist organizations from across Nashville and the state.

“Along with the community, we represent the will of our neighbors. We will hold you accountable for your statements, Mr. Hall, and continue to do so with the support of other organizations and advocates,” according to a statement from Movements Including X (MIX), one of the organizations doubting Hall’s truthfulness in his statement today. Earlier Monday, MIX mobilized a network in response to ICE’s attempt to detain a father in the Hermitage neighborhood of Nashville.

The fact remains that Hall runs one of the largest ICE immigration detention facilities in the state, causing immigration and civil rights groups to speculate that the Davidson County Sheriff seems to have learned a lesson in misleading the public from his ally, President Donald Trump.

“The particulars of whose responsibility, and overall involvement in said levels of government, we feel, is irrelevant,” the MIX said. “We are here to hold accountable the statements and actions of those involved in the unlawful detainment of our neighbors.”

In his release, Hall stated that the “only individuals housed in DCSO jails are those who are booked on local criminal charges” and then “transferred to ICE custody.

”However, what Sheriff Hall fails to disclose to the voters and the public is that the "transfer" of custody is accomplished only through a short document called Form I-203, Order to Detain or Release Alien.

“What Sheriff Hall is doing here is disingenuous,” said TARN member and attorney Will York of Nashville. “He is trying to confuse the community by differentiating legal and physical custody, which are technical concepts. The sheriff is performing linguistic gymnastics to distinguish legal custody from physical custody and to hide his shameful relationship with ICE.”

Upon completion of a Form I-203 by ICE officers, a detainee is legally transferred to ICE custody — while remaining physically in the custody of the sheriff in Davidson County’s jails. ICE pays Hall’s office more than $60 per immigration detainee per day.

“Whatever the sheriff wants to call it, he is making money off the fear and trauma of tearing families apart, even when the person he is detaining has not been charged with any crime whatsoever," York said. “The sheriff continues to detain the bodies of immigrants charged with no crimes for his and ICE’s benefit. Nashville can and should do better.”Organizations calling out the sheriff’s statement include MIX, the Tennessee Anti-Racist Network, Women’s March Tennessee, SURJ Nashville, DangerousIdeas Collective, Everyday Revolutionaries Tennessee, Lights for Liberty Nashville, Nashville Direct Action and Indivisible Tennessee.“

We invite those who feel the same to join our cause in recognizing and fighting these injustices as one,” the MIX stated. Adding, “Today our community reached out to us on multiple social media platforms in solidarity and with urgency to help a Nashvillian and his young son. So we did! We are who we’ve been waiting for!”