Metro Nashville Mayor David Briley tried to judo-flip the bad coverage of his Spanish-language video on how to avoid ICE by tweeting a “thank you” to Fox News, but a lot of people on Twitter and Facebook weren’t buying it and roasted him.
The mayor tweeted, “If you have an encounter with ICE, it’s crucial to know your rights and have a plan. Thank you, @FoxNews viewers, for the hundreds of messages you’ve sent in today about our immigration and refugee rights work in Nashville. We’re planning to keep it up.”
If you have an encounter with ICE, it's crucial to know your rights and have a plan. Thank you, @FoxNews viewers, for the hundreds of messages you've sent in today about our immigration and refugee rights work in Nashville.
We're planning to keep it up. https://t.co/bg2anUBKoY
— Judge David Briley (@DavidBriley) August 8, 2019
Fox News based its story on The Tennessee Star’s coverage of Briley’s Spanish-language tweet telling illegal aliens how to avoid being detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The Star’s story is here.
Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill saw concern with what Briley did.
“It’s crazy that you have a mayor of a major city trying to give people instructions on how to break the law and avoid being arrested. The problem is he is actually trying to incentivize and magnetize Nashville for illegal immigrants,” Gill told Fox 17 in a Friday interview.
Gill also tweeted a link to Kevin Bacon’s initiation scene in Animal House in response to Briley’s tweet.
Councilman John Cooper, Briley’s opponent for Nashville Mayor, also responded to the ICE raids.
“I spoke up when an incident that happened in our community two weeks ago. As I said at the time, that kind of disruption is unhelpful and harmful to our community on so many levels,” he told Fox 17.
https://twitter.com/GillReport/status/1159878876987875328
“What a disgrace to the citizens of Nashville and Tennessee,” One Twitter user tweeted.
What a disgrace to the citizens of Nashville and Tennessee. pic.twitter.com/Uk1Ft1cIoe
— S.Kinny (@SkinnyFilter) August 9, 2019
Another Twitter user tweeted, “He’s in a run off election in about 4 weeks that he’s gonna lose badly and he knows it, that’s why he’s pandering to ever [sic] special interest on the planet”.
He’s in a run off election in about 4 weeks that he’s gonna lose badly and he knows it, that’s why he’s pandering to ever special interest on the planet
— georgeforbis (@georgeforbis) August 9, 2019
Another Twitter user tweeted,” I’m a @FoxNews viewer and did a double-take learning the mayor of a patriotic city is coaching illegals how to deal with #ICE. I hope, I pray ppl who believe in Law and Order will recall you and send you to #NYC where your kind will be welcome! #Trump2020”.
https://twitter.com/IYerkanov/status/1159770548534038528
The Star’s Facebook page received some memorable replies, including, “I can’t believe Nashville is going THIS FAR out into ‘Left’ field…For Shame!!!” and “What a fool, total disregard for the law. Trump 2020.”
Perhaps this Facebook response summed it up best: “Ugh.”
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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
Photo “David Briley” by David Briley.
Where’s Briley’s video on how to avoid the IRS? I don’t like paying taxes.