The Nashville Metropolitan Clerk on Monday confirmed to The Tennessee Star that the nearly $1.5 million in grants proposed for two nonprofits that provide legal services for immigrants in Tennessee are continuations of previous grants awarded by the city. However, the proposed grants for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 will shift the funding source from Biden-era stimulus money to Nashville taxpayers.
It was reported last month that the budget proposed by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell requests $735,000 for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and $718,000 for Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON), which previously received a combined $3.7 million as the result of contracts with the city.
While a spokesperson for Mayor Freddie O’Connell claimed to The Star that the FY 2027 proposal for TIRRC would not include funding for illegal immigrant legal services, and city budget documents confirm no spending listed for the same grant from 2024-2026, the Metropolitan Clerk’s office told The Star last week it had no report from the nonprofit to make available for public inspection as required under Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA) 7-3-314(b). A spokesperson for the mayor’s office also reportedly claimed the spending was “not new.”
This was confirmed to The Star on Monday by Metro Clerk Austin Kyle, who said O’Connell’s proposed spending reflects the continuation of the Biden-era grants, which included funding for lawyers representing illegal aliens.
“I received clarification that the proposals in Mayor O’Connell’s budget are extensions of previously awarded grants, with the funding source being the only difference,” wrote Kyle, noting that the funds will come from Nashville’s general budget rather than former President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
Kyle additionally claimed the type of grant did not require the type of public inspection merited under TCA 7-3-314(b), revealing Metro instead contends the proposed grant spending is governed by TCA 7-3-314(c), which eliminates the need for an additional resolution when nonprofit recipients and appropriation amounts are listed in the budget and Metro later enters into written agreements with the organizations. However, that explanation does not appear to resolve the separate public inspection language in TCA 7-3-314(b), which states that nonprofits seeking financial assistance from a metropolitan government “shall file” proposed-use, program, and audit materials with the clerk, and that those reports “will be open for public inspection” at the clerk’s office.
In an apparent direct contradiction of the claims made to The Star by the spokesperson for O’Connell last week, if the new contract between TIRRC and Metro for FY 2027 is based on the existing contract, it will specifically include immigrant legal services.
The current contract with TIRRC was signed in June 2022, then extended in 2024 until June 30, 2026. The funds were awarded specifically, “to administer the program for immigrant legal services.” Nashville’s contract with TNJFON similarly states the funding “is for a pilot program for immigration legal services, as further defined in the ‘SCOPE OF PROGRAM.’”
Later, the TIRRC contract specifies, “TIRRC and TNJFON provided free immigration legal services to more than 700 Davidson County residents, enabling them to understand their rights and obligations under federal law and in many cases to secure or extend immigration status and work authorization.”
According to the contract, the funding allocated by Metro specifically facilitated legal work for immigrants seeking various forms of representation or assistance on immigration-related matters:
With ongoing support from Metro, TIRRC and TNJFON will work to ensure that local immigrant community members have access to legal and community resources and referrals; to provide legal representation when possible; to equip those community members forced to navigate the legal system without legal representation to do so as effectively as possible; and to enable eligible community members to obtain work permits, protection from deportation, become U.S. citizens, and live safely and freely with their loved ones while making valuable contributions to the Nashville community.”
The 2024 extension to the contract additionally reveals that the funding from Nashville allowed the nonprofit to hire three full-time staff members and provide consultations or advice to more than 400 clients in Davidson County, with representation secured for a total of 139.
Further underscoring the apparent use of the grant money to connect those seeking legal services with lawyers, in their explanation of how the funding would be used, TIRRC and TNJFON wrote, “With continued support from Metro, we will devote additional staff resources to our community resource line to ensure that all callers who are in removal proceedings have access to specific, tailored, high-quality information about their rights and obligations in immigration court.”
The TNJFON contract with Nashville contained similar language about using the money to increase the nonprofit’s immigration caseload.
“TNJFON will provide limited legal representation (advice and counsel) to at least 300 individuals and extended representation to at least 100 individuals in cases including affirmative asylum, U visas, T visas, VAWA, Special immigrant Juvenile, Lawful Permanent Residence, inadmissibility waivers, and defensive asylum,” the contract states.
As a direct result of the funding during the first two years, the 2024 contract states, “In September 2023, we added a Memphis-based Senior Staff Attorney who represents Davidson County residents in removal proceedings before the Memphis Immigration Court.”
Noting that the funding facilitated by Nashville allowed the nonprofit to provide access to “free, high-quality legal representation,” the contract additionally states, “From June 2022 through December 2023, Metro funding allowed our legal staff to open 360 cases for Davidson County residents (advice and counsel for 244; extended representation for 116).”
If approved by the Metro Nashville Council on June 17, the legal services made possible by Nashville funding, shifted to local taxpayers from the Biden-era federal funding, will continue amid concern by State House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) that the grants could violate Tennessee’s laws against sanctuary cities.
“Metro’s budget request of $735k for TIRRC could be in violation of Tennessee’s no [sanctuary] cities law,” wrote Sexton in a post to X last week. “This year the House passed legislation to expose through transparency these groups who violate our state laws.”
Sexton appeared to allude to House Bill (HB) 1711, which would have required local governments and law enforcement agencies to report information about those unlawfully in the country, as well as the public services provided to non-citizens, to the state government. The Tennessee General Assembly ultimately did not pass the legislation.
“We look forward to bringing it back next year,” Sexton added.
We agree! Metro’s budget request of $735k for TIRRC could be in violation of Tennessee’s no santaury cities law. @TNDAGC and @JasonMumpower are watching this very closely.
This year the House passed legislation to expose through transparency these groups who violate our state… https://t.co/VayghXmWZy
— Speaker Cameron Sexton (@CSexton25) June 4, 2026
Tennessee’s existing anti-sanctuary city statute, originally passed by the General Assembly in 2018, already prohibits cities from passing formal policies, but also any “practice” or “policy,” whether “informally adopted” or “otherwise effectuated,” that limits cooperation with federal immigration officials, restricts compliance with federal immigration detainers, or otherwise restrains communication about federal immigration matters between federal and local authorities.
While neither Nashville’s contract with TIRRC nor TNJFON order any government agency to refuse cooperation with federal immigration authorities, the contracts reveal Metro is financing an immigration legal-services program that includes representation for aliens in removal proceedings, legal information for those navigating immigration court, and assistance for those seeking “protection from deportation,” work authorization, and recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Metro’s funding also facilitated “Know Your Rights” training sessions that instructed attendees how to respond during encounters with law enforcement.
This language could give critics, including Sexton and U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), a basis to argue the existing grants already “otherwise effectuated” an unofficial sanctuary city policy by funding outside nonprofits for programs that help illegal aliens pursue legal options to resist, delay, or avoid federal immigration enforcement consequences.
Blackburn, the front-runner for the Republican nomination to become Tennessee’s next governor, expressed her opposition last week to the grant O’Connell proposed for TIRRC.
“Every Tennessean should be outraged that Mayor [O’Connell] wants tax dollars to fund a pro-illegal alien nonprofit,” wrote Blackburn in a post to X. “I urge the Metro Council to reject this. Anti-ICE groups like TIRRC should not receive a dime of Tennesseans’ hard-earned money.”
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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].
