Nashville activists won’t let ICE’s anti-immigrant reign of terror go unanswered

The office of the Department of Homeland Security which ICE operates out of in Nashville. ICE and the Tennessee Highway Patrol have carried out deportation raids under the cover of traffic stops. | George Walker IV / AP

“Horrifying and terrifying” was the immediate reaction of a local member of the Indigenous community to the shocking recent raids in the Nashville metro area by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

On Sunday, May 4, there began a reign of terror against the immigrant communities of the city, with the main target being the Latino population, initiated by ICE, with the assistance of the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP).

Massive traffic sweeps have been undertaken by ICE and THP on the spurious claim that law enforcement was out to suppress criminal activity. The method employed was traffic stops for violations such as broken taillights and tinted windows. At this point in time, there have been over 600 traffic stops made, resulting in nearly 200 arrests.

Reality disputes the narrative that over 600 vehicles had broken taillights and tinted windows coupled with various and sundry other traffic violations, however. These claims by police are preposterous.

What’s really happening in Nashville is that the Latino community is under racist attack.

The nightmare, the reign of terror has been relentless. Immigrants are afraid to leave their homes or go to work; they’re even fearful of a routine trip to the local supermarket for food. There were instances in the beginning of this wave of sweeps of people being stopped and arrested on their way to work, on their way home from work, and there was the case of a father detained while on his way home with decorations for his son’s birthday party. His family had no idea what happened to him; they later found his vehicle abandoned on the side of the road.

ICE officials are not providing the identities of the majority those arrested. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters are simply disappearing.

The Metropolitan Nashville Immigrant Caucus reports that federal agents have also approached school children at bus stops and asked them about their parents’ immigration status. There is a report of a 19-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who went out for ice cream, was detained by ICE, and then sent post haste to Louisiana.

Another case involved a young mother of two children who was pulled over for allegedly driving a vehicle with tinted windows that were too dark. She had a valid driver’s license and no criminal record; she too is now in a Louisiana detention center facing deportation. Another mother was forced to sell the family car to afford legal help. The list goes on and on. Families are being devastated and destroyed. For the immigrants involved, it’s reminiscent of the fascism of Hitler’s Germany.

An unintended consequence of these deportation sweeps and raids for mainstream society is that the major entertainment district of Nashville, Lower Broadway—an area filled with honky-tonks, bars, and restaurants—is virtually closed down because there is no one to cook the food, wash the dishes, or mop the floors. Immigrant workers, the labor force of the entertainment district, are afraid to leave their homes to go to work. The restaurant of conservative celebrity Kid Rock, a staunch Trump supporter, is shuttered because the entire kitchen staff left after being informed that ICE was on the way.

Is Nashville a testing ground for fascist sweeps? Some are beginning to speculate that could be the case, that Nashville is being used as the site of an experiment by the Trump administration to gauge what kind of reaction or resistance there will be as it rolls out its deportation strategy.

So far, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell has come out strongly against the actions by ICE and THP. He’s been joined by a number of Metro Council members, including the Metro Council Immigrant Caucus.

But still, the sweeps continue, and 98% of those arrested remain unidentified. Dozens of Nashvillians have simply been disappeared. This is a rapidly exploding crisis with new developments daily.

The people are shocked, but they’re also strategizing on how best to resist this fascist onslaught. On May 17, a mass rally called “Nashville Fights Back” was held in a Latino section of the city at the very intersection where the raids started on May 4. Nearly a thousand protesters gathered to show opposition to the ICE sweeps, chanting slogans such as “Say it once, say it twice, we will not put up with ICE.”

It’s not just the protesters in the streets who are pushing back, though; ICE’s tactics are being denounced from official circles, as well. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee of 2024, during a commencement speech at the University of Minnesota’s law school on May 17, said, “Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They’re in unmarked vans wearing masks being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons.”

This is exactly what is happening in Nashville; the entire kitchen crew of a large restaurant was abducted by masked white men who refused to identify themselves. All the workers were whisked into vans and taken away.

ICE has said that its operation is over for the time being, but this claim is met with disbelief here in Nashville. Immigrant neighborhoods remain on edge. One local TV station commentator opined that Tennessee is at the forefront nationally of ICE operations; and indeed, the city does appear to be the current focal point.

Activists here and nationwide cannot relent in their effort to organize and mobilize the resistance. There are certainly more attacks to come.

As with all op-eds published by People’s World, this article reflects the views of its author.

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CONTRIBUTOR

Albert Bender

Albert Bender is a Cherokee activist, historian, political columnist, and freelance reporter. He is currently writing a legal treatise on Native American sovereignty and working on a book on the war crimes committed by the U.S. against the Maya people in the Guatemalan civil war He is a consulting attorney on Indigenous sovereignty, land restoration, and Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) issues.