In the end, the governor and several state lawmakers were able to thwart a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plot to release illegal immigrants, including convicted criminals, into the state, according to the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office.
State Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said on Wednesday that ICE was compelled to provide previously unknown information regarding the agency’s intended release of thousands of detained migrants, including convicted criminals, following a lawsuit brought by the AG’s office.
The office claimed to have acquired hundreds of pages of documents that provided insight into the then-canceled federal authorities’ intention to bring thousands of “single adult” immigration detainees into Tennessee.
The findings stem from the governor’s office’s 2022 discovery that ICE had been working with Nashville officials and local immigration-rights organizations to release a significant number of detainees into the state prior to the expected expiration of the federal government’s Title 42 public health order.
“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,” Skrmetti stated.
According to the documents, Republican Governor Bill Lee and Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty opposed ICE’s plan to release migrants into Tennessee. The state attorney general’s office successfully sued to halt the scheme.
Despite abandoning its failed plan to release a large number of detainees into Tennessee, the office said the information also showed that ICE released over 7,000 detainees directly from its Louisiana sites at that time, including over 30 who were assigned ICE’s highest security-threat level.
The data also showed that released detainees had criminal histories that included drug trafficking, burglary, fraud, armed robbery, smuggling aliens, aggravated assault with a weapon, murder, sexual assault, and kidnapping.
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“While the urgent work to fix our broken immigration system continues in Washington, my office will keep fighting for transparency and accountability,” Skrmetti stated.
After the FBI flagged more than 600 migrants with potential ties overall, the Department of Homeland Security revealed Wednesday that it is recommending more than 100 migrants it has identified as potentially having ties to a deadly Venezuelan gang be placed on a blacklist.
Officials stated, however, that they do not think all 600 migrants would be verified gang members and that many will be family members, victims, or witnesses to the infamous gang members’ atrocities.
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