Rep. Aftyn Behn Responds to Massive ICE Operation in Nashville
“This Is What State-Sponsored Fear and Violence Looks Like.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4th, 2026
Contact: Ken Jobe, ken.jobe@capitol.tn.gov
This weekend, a coordinated and alarming immigration enforcement operation unfolded in the heart of Nashville’s immigrant and refugee communities. Witnesses reported multiple drivers pulled over and detained, including mothers driving to work, allegedly leaving children in vehicles by themselves. Videos, photos, and firsthand accounts point to ICE working in tandem with the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) to carry out what can only be described as a dragnet.
What I’ve heard anecdotally is deeply disturbing. If THP’s involvement is confirmed, it raises urgent and serious questions about THP’s role and authority in detaining Nashvillians for ICE.
Dragnet operations like this do nothing to improve public safety. What they do is terrorize families, disrupt lives, and shatter trust between law enforcement and the communities they are supposed to serve. THP officers should be focused on roadway safety, not detaining parents heading to drop their kids off at daycare or pulling over residents based on their appearance, language, or neighborhood.
This is not happening in a vacuum. Over the last decade, Tennessee has systematically expanded its anti-immigrant apparatus. The legislation passed by Governor Lee earlier this year took that agenda to a new level, establishing a centralized immigration enforcement division under the Department of Safety and encouraging local agencies to do ICE’s dirty work.
We are now seeing the impact: neighborhoods in fear, families in crisis, and a state law enforcement agency allegedly assisting in deportation sweeps without public accountability.
