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Tennessee AG reveals halted federal plan for migrant release

LEGAL NEWSLINE

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Tennessee AG reveals halted federal plan for migrant release

State AG
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Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti | LinkedIn

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced that the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office has successfully compelled United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to disclose information regarding the release of detained migrants, including those convicted of serious crimes. The documents obtained reveal a previously undisclosed plan by ICE to transport thousands of "single adult" immigration detainees into Tennessee, which was halted due to opposition from state officials and legal action.

The records indicate that ICE's initial plan was thwarted by resistance from Tennessee's Governor and U.S. Senators, leading to its abandonment following successful litigation by the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office and other states. Despite this, ICE released over 7,000 detainees directly from its Louisiana facilities at that time, with more than 30 classified as high-security threats. These individuals had criminal records involving homicide, sexual assault, aggravated assault with a weapon, armed robbery, kidnapping, smuggling aliens, drug trafficking, burglary, and fraud.

"The federal government’s single most important job is to keep dangerous people out of our country and instead it has let killers and rapists illegally cross our border and walk free on our streets," stated Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. "While the urgent work to fix our broken immigration system continues in Washington, my Office will keep fighting for transparency and accountability."

In December 2022, it was discovered that ICE had been coordinating with local immigration-rights groups and Nashville officials to release large numbers of detainees into Tennessee ahead of the anticipated end of the federal Title 42 public health order. With backing from the Governor's Office, the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office sought answers from federal authorities. When these inquiries went unanswered under the Freedom of Information Act requests, a lawsuit was filed.

The litigation resulted in ICE producing hundreds of pages of documents revealing coordination between ICE, Nashville city officials, and a Tennessee immigration nonprofit for mass detainee releases into Tennessee. It also showed plans for releasing thousands of non-citizen detainees from Louisiana detention facilities into Tennessee and included data on releases involving individuals with violent criminal histories such as murder, rape, and kidnapping.

You can find the documents from ICE here.

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