Rutherford County Mayor Joe Carr is calling on the county commission to formally censure Commissioner Hope Oliver (District 1) and remove her from the Public Safety Committee, condemning her recent remarks comparing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to terrorist organizations as “morally reprehensible.”
During Monday’s meeting of the Public Safety Committee, Rutherford County Sheriff Mike Fitzhugh defended the sheriff’s office’s (RCSO) pending 287(g) partnership with ICE, which allows local law enforcement to assist federal immigration efforts.
Fitzhugh emphasized that while RCSO does not enforce immigration, ICE is contacted if an illegal alien commits a crime in Rutherford County and is arrested.
Before Fitzhugh spoke on the topic, Commissioner Oliver equated ICE to a “terrorist organization” that has been “emboldened.”
“ICE has been an organization that has been around for a long time, but it has not been emboldened and a terrorist organization that it’s turning out to be,” Oliver said, which drew cheers from audience members.
Mayor Carr, in a statement sent to The Tennessee Star, said he found it “morally reprehensible” that a sitting member of the Rutherford County Commission’s Public Safety Committee would label ICE as “emboldened terrorists.”
“Think about what she is saying. The Mexican Drug Cartels (an actual terrorist group by the U.S. State Department) are beheading brothers and fathers, raping sisters and mothers and selling into the sex traffic innocent children. ICE is dedicated to ridding our country of the problem created by President Joe Biden and Ms. Oliver. She dares compare ICE to the Mexican Drug Cartels,” Carr added.
The mayor went on to call on Commission Chairman Jeff Phillips (District 17) to “rebuke” Oliver with a formal vote of censure.
Further, Carr called on the Steering Committee to remove Oliver from the Public Safety Committee “immediately.”
“Make no mistake about it – this is but another example of the unhinged woke crowd trying to destroy the sovereignty of this great nation with an open borders policy,” Carr said.
Oliver’s current term expires in August 2026.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Just another Trump hating Democrat