One of the nonprofits currently “coordinating the provision” of the controversial “Belonging Fund,” announced in May to assist families of illegal immigrants amid deportations, filed a lawsuit last week against the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDOSHS), seeking to obtain records of those detained during the joint operation in May between Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP), which operates under TDOSHS, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) filed its lawsuit against TDOSHS on Thursday, demanding the agency share unredacted Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) reports and video depicting the 196 illegal immigrants who were detained in May.
It suggests TDOSHS has refused to provide these materials in order to prevent the nonprofit from revealing its “dubious efforts to use state powers to enforce federal civil immigration laws through stops, interrogations, and detentions of motorists on Tennessee roadways.”
TIRRC specifically alleges that TDOSHS violated the Tennessee Public Records Act by declining to provide all the requested materials, as according to the lawsuit, TDOSHS did not provide Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) reports and police video for nine of the ten days the operation took place. It also declined to release communications between TDOSHS and the federal government preceding both the May operation and THP entering into a 287(g) agreement with ICE.
However, the lawsuit seemed to reveal the nonprofit did receive some information from TDOSHS in response to its various public records requests, namely 337 redacted pages in response to a request for Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) reports. The lawsuit also indicates TDOSHS said it might provide an additional 52 hours of THP video in September.
The nonprofit is asking for a court to force the TDOSHS to provide the information it requested, and to award TIRRC expenses related to the lawsuit.
TIRRC is one of two nonprofits that earlier this year was described as “coordinating the provision” for the “Belonging Fund,” which was announced by Mayor Freddie O’Connell as a joint effort between Metro Nashville and the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee to assist those impacted by the immigration enforcement in May.
It previously received millions in federal taxpayer dollars from the Metro Nashville Council, who awarded more than $2 million in Biden-era money to TIRRC in order to establish a “two-year pilot program” in order to “expand critical immigration legal services in Davidson County.”
During the Biden administration, the nonprofit was approached to partner with federal immigration authorities to facilitate the release of thousands of illegal immigrants into Tennessee.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Please defund tirrc. I want my tax money back. More Ice please.