Nashville Mayor Megan Barry released a statement Tuesday morning asking the Metro Council to reconsider an ordinance that would restrict local cooperation with federal immigration officials.
The ordinance passed on a second reading last week and is up for a final vote July 6.
Barry was acting in response to a formal legal opinion issued Monday by Metro Law Director Jon Cooper stating that the ordinance could not be applied to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office. Barry said:
It is clear from this legal opinion that BL2017-739 does not apply to Sheriff Daron Hall, who has said he will continue to honor detainer requests from the federal government. Additionally, the Metro Nashville Police Department has concerns that the ordinance would prohibit them from recommending U visa applications for immigrants who are victims of crime and willing to help put dangerous criminals in jail. Losing that law enforcement tool could jeopardize public safety and would run counter to the intentions of the sponsors to make Nashville a more welcoming city for New Americans.
The Metro Council should give serious consideration to these factors and reconsider whether this legislation is appropriate or necessary at this time.
In his legal opinion, Cooper said that the ordinance “would not be legally binding on the Sheriff. Under state law, the Council cannot prohibit the Sheriff from cooperating with federal authorities related to immigration.”
As for U visas for certain crime victims, Metro police and the district attorney recommended 189 such visas in 2016 and 169 so far this year.
“This is an important tool for law enforcement to have the witness testimony necessary to arrest and prosecute dangerous criminals who are a threat to the community,” Barry’s press release said.
Immigration activists rarely publicly acknowledge that this protection is available for illegal immigrants. Instead, they argue that sanctuary cities and amnesties are necessary to make illegal immigrants feel comfortable about contacting police.
Though until today, Barry has stayed quiet about the proposed Metro Council ordinance, she is seen as friendly to illegal immigration.
The proposed ordinance has faced mounting opposition in recent days, including by a majority of state legislators in the House and a budding grassroots movement.
Government is complex and always changing. Do you want leaders that are able to lead a course-correction as the landscape of the journey changes, or, leaders that stake everyone’s everything for a half-decade on the exact words of their pre-election campaigning? I suggest that we elect leaders and not bullet points.
Leviticus 19, 33-34. Seems pretty unambiguous to me. I am extremely grateful to be born in such a prosperous country. I’ve served in its military for nearly 20 years. I’ve seen firsthand the horrors these refugees live through. I can only think that “But for the Grace of God, there go I.
Don’t let Fear be your Master. Go out and talk to, and see a refugee firsthand. If you can look them and their children in the eye and tell them they are not welcome., I imagine Church on Sunday will be a hollow experience. Anyway, May God Contimue to Bless this Country, You and all Yours.
once again, you are using the definition du jour, refugees. many are illegal immigrants and do not belong here under those circumstances. i want you to look the family in the eye of a citizen who was killed by an illegal alien. let’s see how you do…tell them how we should just let them all in.
and even if they are just refugees from poverty, we can’t possibly take them all. besides, most want to stay in their own country. too many laws have been passed to subsidize everything from healthcare to small business loans, things that average citizens would never be able to qualify for.
so let the church fund them…cut out all government transfer payments.
We are reconsidering – your continued employment. Newsflash: it’s not looking so good.
I escaped Memphis and it’s high crime rate 12 years ago, after living there my entire life, 56 years. I chose middle Tennessee because of the relative safety of the areas. Nashvile is one of the best areas in America to live. You are setting about to ruin it by bringing in too many immigrants at once, and ones coming from countries where accurate vetting is impossible due to lack of sufficient infrastructure and record keeping. I am interested to know if the proponents of the Sanctuary City status are Catholic. The Catholic Charities make millions of dollars every year off of immigrants, and the Pope pushes political policies to create opportunities for Catholic Charities, and other Catholic money making enterprises, to make great amounts of money to support the high expenses of the Vatican and the business of the Catholic Church, which is extremely expensive. Knowing that Catholic has a great deal of money at stake with the influx of immigrants, I am betting that organization has enticed politicians in power to support the creation of Sanctuary Status for Nashville and all other areas in America where the status is in existance or has that potential. If the involvement of the Catholic Church was researched throughout the country, I believe that the Church would be found to be pushing the creation of Sanctuary Cities to fill their coffers with millions of dollars of business income.
Your comments on the motives of the Catholic Church in advocating illegal immigration border are little more than innuendo and based on half-truths. Pope Francis is interested in the spread of Socialism, having been educated and raised in that system. Unfortunately for us Catholics, he has been using his position as Pontiff to speak out on political matters, blurring the distinction between social and spiritual concerns whenever possible. Although in a position of authority, he does not speak for the majority of Catholics when he makes these kinds of pronouncements… we just wince and swallow hard knowing that he’s just opened up another case of worms. Your assertion that the Church is somehow going to benefit financially from donations made by illegal aliens is completely without merit and impossible to prove. It does, however, indicate an anti-Catholic bias that is most troubling. Francis claims to be the voice of the downtrodden and believes that immigration laws reinforce a kind of caste system that will keep the poor in poverty; he fails to realize that there exists an evil in this world that would like to establish a theocracy that would prove deadly to anyone refusing to submit to their religious notions… especially Catholics. Sorry, but your conclusions to the Sanctuary City proposal for Nashville… while well-intentioned… is completely wrong-headed and based on a flawed premise.
I agree with Betty. Mayor Barry reminds me of a young Hilliary who wants to destroy Nashville as bad as she did the country. I am guessing the younger voters are the ones that actually got the mayor elected, few of them native Tennesseans. We have our way of doing things here and the state capitol should represent Tennessee values. We do welcome company coming and people who to make middle TN home.We also want our families save. Crime has skyrocketed under Mayor Barry. New sidewalks don’t matter when they are not safe to walk. Nashville has long been considered the buckle of the Bible Belt. To that end, scripture teaches that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance. It also says God will not wait forever to judge the world again. Christians are to teach the truth in love. Scripture teaches to hate the sin and love the sinner. In the list of sexual sins, one will find homosexuality listed; no worse, or no better than any of the other sexual sins listed in scripture. Nashville doesn’t need a parade celebrating sins specifically mentioned in the Bible.. This could be applied to several parades in town annually.
i want to move to the nashville area soon…this has me rethinking
As a New Yorker who made GA my home years ago, and became a conservative, I’m sick of these filthy Leftists infecting the south with their liberalism!
yet they continue to come, thinking they are leaving their crumbling leftist society behind. they all want what the south has, but they refuse to let go of their past.
“NO”TO SANCTUARY CITY FOR NASHVILLE
THIS WILL MAKE NASHVILLE MORE DANGEROUS
WE TAX PAYERS CANT AFFORD TO SUPPORT THESE FREE LOADERS AND WE DONT EVEN KNOW WHO THEY ARE….NO NO NO
Get Mayor Berry out because she wants to put Nashville in harms way. Why is she pushing the sanctuary city issue? Something that Nashville citizens are not seeing, probably money involved. Sanctuary cities are struggling financially and will affect the Nashville way of life. Nashville is a fanatic city and I don’t want a snowflake mayor to destroy it. NO SANCTUARY CITY..Mayor Berry has loss why she was elected initially. Call or text or contact your councilman or representatives to put a stop to Mayor Berry’s insanely dangerous influence.
If this passes, she will be a one and done mayor and any asperstions of becoming a governor will go out the window. Berry can’t force this down Nashvillians throats and think there will not be repricutions.
I am a tourist visiting Nashville this week. I hope the nutcase liberal Mayor will be voted out of office soon. We have been disgusted at the roaming homeless, pushing their way into our path for aggressive “begging”. A Sanctuary city? What a stupid idea to push. Why not support abiding by the law instead of breaking it? Good luck Nashville–you have an incompetent Mayor.
leftist do gooders destroy everything they touch…tey think government is the solution and that taxpayers should continue funding every new harebrained idea that comes along.
[…] uncertain. Mayor Megan Barry, while regarded as friendly toward illegal immigration, released a statement Tuesday morning asking Metro Council to reconsider the ordinance. She cited the findings of […]
Megan Barry needs to go back to Santa Ana
California. We do not want to turn our great state into another California.
The need for a recall and put her out of office.
When you put a liberal in office what the people want doesn’t matter. They will force their agenda on you.
Look what the liberal government has done to California and New York.
Barry is dangerous. She needs to be removed from office. Typical lefty who thinks she can violate laws she doesn’t like.
How did we get such a dumb Mayor? IMPEACH HER NOW!
You would think these idiots would know the law BEFORE introducing a bill like this and wasting tax payer money. I bet they didn’t ask any Nashville what they thought. They just want to impose their will on us,
I agree! Megan Barry needs to listen to the people of Tennessee not just her liberal cronies.
They only care what the left think.