Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell ‘Puzzled’ by DHS Sanctuary City Designation, ‘Not Particularly Concerned’ over Congressional Probe
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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said during a Friday
press conference that he was “puzzled” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s decision to designate
Nashville a sanctuary city, claiming that the Metro government had worked to comply with a Tennessee law
banning such cities in the Volunteer State.
The mayor also told reporters he is not worried about the
congressional probe unveiled by U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) on Friday, which seeks information from the mayor and Metro Nashville over his actions in response to recent federal immigration enforcement in Tennessee, including O’Connell’s
executive order mandating Metro employees report interactions with federal immigration officials, and the new “Belonging Fund”
for illegal immigrants which received seed funding from nonprofits awarded
Biden-era stimulus money by Nashville.
The mayor was also questioned about the fund, which O’Connell had announced as a joint effort between Nashville and the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT).
“Yeah, the Belonging Fund was set up really in response to the findings of Imagine Nashville, which found that our local immigrant population, in fact, had one of the strongest senses of belonging,” said O’Connell.
Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell said during a Friday press conference that he was "puzzled" by the decision by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to designate Nashville a sanctuary city, claiming that the Metro government worked to comply with a Tennessee law banning such cities in the...
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