Advocates, community members rally against state’s anti-immigration policies

“El pueblo unido jamás será vencido.”

“The people united will never be defeated.”

Hundreds of people chanted this classic protest phrase in both Spanish and English in downtown Nashville on April 4 as they rallied against the Tennessee General Assembly’s passing of HB2124/SB2576 and asked Gov. Bill Lee to veto the legislation. The bill requires law enforcement agencies to report knowledge of undocumented individuals to federal officials and cooperate with them in their “identification, apprehension, detention, or removal.”

The bill’s House sponsor, Rep. Rusty Grills (R-Newbern), introduced the legislation to a committee as a way to “force [law enforcement agencies] to reach out to the feds” about having in custody someone who is not in the United States legally. Dozens of Republicans co-sponsored the legislation in both the House and Senate.

Critics of the bill see the mandate as extra work that will stretch understaffed law enforcement agencies and exacerbate distrust between police officers and the immigrant community. In March, Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) voiced another common criticism, calling the legislation “rooted in racism and xenophobia.” Representatives from the Metro Nashville Police Department tell the Scene they’re concerned the legislation could “erode the trust that we have worked hard over a period of years to build with immigrant communities” and “dissuade cooperation with our officers among some Nashville residents” during investigations.

“This bill will exacerbate the racial profiling already happening in our communities, where anyone who looks like an immigrant or speaks with an accent will be targeted for traffic stops and arrests,” said American Muslim Advisory Council executive director Sabina Mohyuddin at last week’s rally.

Despite the protest and the demand for a veto, Lee is almost certain to sign the bill into law. It aligns with his politics and those of his Republican colleagues. During a recent trip to the Southern border, Lee committed to sending two waves of Tennessee National Guardsmen to help “secure our border” amid increasing numbers of migrants entering the United States.

Members of Tennessee’s U.S. congressional delegation have also visited the border and perpetuated anti-immigration rhetoric — even as they’ve voted against bipartisan border security legislation. U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville) is facing a defamation lawsuit after wrongly accusing a Kansas man of being an “illegal alien” and a mass shooter, and several Republican state lawmakers spoke to a crowd of roughly 100 people during a “Protect Tennessee’s Borders” rally March 20 at the state Capitol. Amid the ongoing rhetoric, Tennessee’s conservative supermajority has been accused of creating a climate that emboldens white supremacists, including neo-Nazis who marched downtown in February while chanting “deport all Mexicans.”

HB2124/SB2576 is one of many pieces of xenophobic legislation that has come up during this session and in recent years. One bill that has since failed sought to make driver’s license tests available in English only. Another proposed bill that was ultimately tabled would have made transporting undocumented people into the state a class-A misdemeanor.

SB2770/HB1872, currently on hold, allows courts to enhance criminal charges up to a lifetime sentence without parole for undocumented individuals who commit violent crimes — alongside any adult who commits violent crimes on school property. Another (HB2774/SB2158) requires state agencies to track and compile a report on the costs of serving immigrants. Rep. Jake McCalmon (R-Franklin) has said the goal of the bill is “to quantify the cost of illegal immigration,” so the state’s attorney general “has standing to bring suit against the federal government if he deems necessary.” The bill comes with its own significant cost — millions of dollars in local expenditures to facilitate such reporting.

Dulce Castro, an immigrant and a longtime volunteer for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, told the Scene that showing up to the protest was “very scary.”

“A lot of people do not empathize with the immigrant story,” said Castro. “And that’s a constant challenge that immigrants will continue to face. But that will not let us just stay in the shadows, because we contribute to this state. We contribute to this country.”

Hamilton Matthew Masters contributed reporting.

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Scene.