Metro Nashville provided The Tennessee Star with 51 documents in response to its June 11 request filed using the Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA), but none offer justification for the decision by Mayor Freddie O’Connell to include nearly $1.5 million for two pro-illegal alien nonprofits in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget passed by the Metro Council last month.
The response from Metro included 51 emails, along with some of their attachments, exchanged among Metro officials, employees, and Metro City Council members between 2022 and 2026. However, none of the emails included the information Tennessee state law requires metropolitan governments to obtain from nonprofits before authorizing appropriations.
According to Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA) 7-3-314(b):
Any nonprofit organization that desires financial assistance from a county with a metropolitan form of government shall file with the clerk of the legislative body a statement of the proposed use of the funds and the program that serves the residents of the county and a copy of an annual audit. The report will be open for public inspection during regular business hours of the clerk’s office. This subsection (b) does not apply to nonprofit organizations involved in the study, participation in and appreciation of the visual, performing or literary arts receiving grants from an arts commission or arts board created by the legislative body of the metropolitan government.”
None of the emails included in the Tuesday response included a proposed use of funds submitted by Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition or Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors for the original 2022 contracts between Metro and the nonprofits, the changes made to the contracts in 2024, or the nearly $1.5 million included in the FY 27 budget.
In fact, none of the emails seem to include specifics about what the spending approved in 2022, 2024, or 2026 will be used for, with the exception of an email from Council Member Delishia Porterfield (At Large).
“I want to co sponsor the legislation providing TIRRC money for legal services please,” wrote Porterfield in a June 1, 2022, email to Metro Nashville Senior Legal Counsel Hannah Zeitlin.
Zeitlin forwarded the email to the Metro Clerk along with a message confirming Porterfield specifically referenced the 2022 legislation authorizing the use of Biden-era American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for a legal pilot program led by TIRRC and TNJFON.
While a spokesperson from the mayor’s office previously told The Star that none of the money appropriated in the FY 27 budget would be used for attorneys, legal representation, or advocacy for illegal aliens, the Metro Clerk later told The Star that the FY 27 budget merely changes the funding source to the original grant from Biden-era ARPA funds to Metro taxpayers.
A document submitted to Metro by TIRRC and TNJFON in 2022 suggests Metro knew the nonprofits intended to use the money to provide legal support to illegal immigrants as early as 2022.
The 2022 document submitted by TIRRC and TNJFON notably cites a document produced by the Vera Institute of Justice that specifically urged local governments to use the temporary Biden-era funding as a “catalyst” for “a new or expanded long-term program,” with a permanent funding source, to make “zealous representation for people facing deportation sustainable over time.”
In the same document, the Vera Institute specifically urged local governments to, “Ensure that immigrants – regardless of status – can equally access and are eligible to receive all benefits and programs funded” with the Biden-era money.
The nearly $1.5 million appropriated last month for TIRRC and TNJFON exceeds the amount Metro spent on numerous other line items, including unemployment, the agricultural extension, the Community Safety Fund, and a Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Performance Audit.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Freddie O’Connell” by Freddie O’Connell.
