A spokesman for The Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference (TNDAGC) told The Tennessee Star the conference is currently preparing its first report to the governor and state legislators to establish the cost incurred to Tennessee taxpayers as a result of illegal immigrants who are processed through the criminal justice system, to fulfill its obligations under a law signed last year to bill the federal government for the results of President Joe Biden’s immigration policy.
Despite the legal requirement for law enforcement to provide data about illegal immigrants who are arrested in Tennessee, the agency told The Star that neither the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD), nor the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, have provided data to the conference.
With the agency’s first report due January 31, covering the period between October 2024 and December 2024, a spokesman for TNDAGC told The Star on Saturday it hired one research director and three analysts in 2024, who developed materials and trained law enforcement over a six-week period last year.
Noting that Tennessee law enforcement is now required to notify the TNDAGC when they arrest individuals who are in the country illegally, or whose immigration status cannot be determined, a spokesman for the agency explained TNDAGC also created a form for law enforcement to use as part of their booking processes in order to comply with the law and help the agency create is report.
“Anytime an arrestee cannot provide one of the forms of documentation listed in TCA 40-7-1(b) and the arresting officer does not have sufficient personal knowledge of  the individual to presume they are in the United States legally, the local Sheriff is required to complete one of our provided forms and send it to our office,” said the spokesman. “Our team is also using other means to verify the disposition status of each reported individual.  This includes but is not limited to working with local Court Clerks and utilizing publicly available court documents.”
The legal requirement to report immigration status, the TNDAGC training program, and the form created by the conference notwithstanding, the TNDAGC told The Star that as of Friday, “the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office and Metro Nashville Police Department had not submitted any reports for October 1st – December 31st, 2024.”
TNDAGC also confirmed that the nearby Williamson County Sheriff’s Office, despite declining to respond to three comment requests from The Star that sought confirmation for the claim by Representative Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill) that illegal immigrants now constitute one-third of all cases prosecuted in the county, “has reported data for that same time period.”
According to the spokesman, the report will be provided to the General Assembly and Governor Bill Lee on January 31, when it will also be available on the TNDAGC website.
The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) similarly seems to be defying a Tennessee law mandating law enforcement agencies to inform federal agencies of the immigration status of those arrested while in the country illegally, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with the Nashville website declaring immigration is solely a federal concern.
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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].
A simple reply – “No data. No money!”
What are the consequences for MNPD’s refusal to provide the data?