Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell and members of the Metro Nashville Council are resorting to performative politics in response to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducting operations in Middle Tennessee as an effort to appease and retain its radical left-wing voter base.
Beginning Saturday evening, ICE and the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) have been conducting joint immigration enforcement operations in Middle Tennessee which has seen the arrests of over 100 individuals, including illegal aliens with violent criminal histories.
Mayor O’Connell and the Metro Council have since condemned the law enforcement operations.
In addition, during Wednesday’s meeting of the Metro Council’s Public Health and Safety Committee, Emergency Communications Director Stephen Martini indicated that the department is considering implementing new protocols to create a flagging system within the city’s emergency communications infrastructure.
The flagging system would be designed to identify and highlight requests from federal agencies – like the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – that might relate to immigration enforcement, such as increased patrols near ICE facilities, and inform local officials and the public of potential enforcement actions in the future.
“A council member has in fact gotten the Nashville Emergency Services Center to commit to creating an early warning system so the next time a member of DHS says, ‘Hey, we’re going to need your help supporting us at an ICE facility, we might get some protestors,’ that will somehow now translate into a warning that will go out to illegal immigrants living in whatever part of Nashville this might happen in to tell them, stay indoors and don’t talk to the government,” Pappert explained on Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Noting how one council member reportedly tracked and posted ICE vehicle movements on social media, Pappert said the acts seen by some members of the Metro Council in response to the law enforcement operations appear to be “aiding and abetting the evasion of the law by illegal alien criminals.”
“It’s very rich coming from the folks who still to this day, Joe Biden just yesterday, are still saying what happened on January 6th, 2021 was an insurrection. Meanwhile, we have state and local officials broadcasting themselves going around and interfering with official business that the government is trying to complete, which makes us all safer, by the way,” Pappert said.
Pappert went on to frame the outrage expressed by the mayor and council members as performative politics aimed at appeasing Nashville’s radical left-wing voter base.
“It seems a little bit performative. In fact, I think a lot of this is merely a far left city and a far left city government being between a rock and a hard place and doing what they can to keep their radical left base that they’ve really gathered and curated over the past few years, keeping them plugged in and willing to vote for them when the next election comes up,” Pappert said.
Pappert said he also believes Nashville’s leniency toward illegal aliens is driven by electoral strategy, with the Democrats aiming to maintain far-left support and possibly incorporate illegal migrant populations into their future voter base.
“It seems to me that Nashville is doing everything it can to make illegal immigrants a special protected class so they can get as many votes as possible from their far left base, and maybe in a generation or two, these people will be part of the base,” Pappert said.
Tune in now to the Tennessee Bonus Hour on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show – your AMERICA FIRST news talk!
– Watch LIVE here on X
– Listen on Spotify
– Listen on WENO AM760 in Nashville
– Read more at @TheTNStar https://t.co/XbQNnfn5ck— MichaelPatrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) May 9, 2025
– – –
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
The felons swim in the illegal population, Our police are not in control.
These felons prey on their own people.
An article from July of 2017 highlights this issue in the defunct weekly standard.
Riverside police and sheriffs in California refused to give updated addresses to the INS. Many non felon illegals are arrested in the search 🔍 for the felons.
Half the targeted felons get away…
might i suggest that metro nashville government keep its nose out of federal law enforcement.
When council members or fast Freddie get in the way of ICE, please arrest them immediately.
Aiding and abetting criminal invaders should draw a VERY long prison sentence for treasonous insurrection (actual insurrection), especially for politicians and judges.
i guess nerd freddie wants nashville to be a sanctuary city. someone flag tom holman and the DOJ.
From the article;
Mayor O’Connell and the Metro Council have since condemned the law enforcement operations.
Of course they have. Liberals are nothing more than one big mutual admiration society who bend over backwards to protect and support those they perceive to be disadvantaged…..as long as they are people of color, third worlders, or the gender confused.
If you tried to pull this kind of anti-American BS in our county in East Tennessee the sheriff will throw your hinder in jail.
To Freddie and his pack of leftist minions, you are enemies of law abiding Tennesseans. I challenge any one of you to write a commentary in support of your leftist position on ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION and submit it to the Tennessee Star.
how about metro nashville keeping its nose out of federal law enforcement.