Outside Nashville’s Homeland Security Office, more than 100 people braved the ice-slicked roads on a snowy Friday to say a prayer in honor of those killed by federal immigration agents.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis shot and killed Renee Good on Jan. 7, and border patrol officers fatally shot Alex Pretti just weeks later.
“We are here because what is happening in Minneapolis is not isolated. What we are witnessing across this country is a dangerous rise of fear-driven policies,” said Rev. Linda Brown Saffore with Nashville Organized for Action and Hope. “This is not what our faith teaches.”
Rev. Ingrid McIntyre, who helped organize the prayer vigil, said despite the cold in Nashville, the weather was nothing compared to what protesters in Minneapolis are experiencing.
“What feels good about being here today is that so much of our community came out,” McIntyre said. “It was probably a bigger crowd than I've ever seen here before.”
As speakers came up to the microphone and led chants, some immigrant families were — and still are — holed up in homes with no power, afraid that going to a warming site or calling 911 will put them on ICE’s radar.
Lisa Sherman Luna with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition said that fear can put the whole community at risk.
“All of us should be really disturbed right now that we have whole sections of our communities in Nashville who are going to face more hardship because they're afraid, because they don't trust the resources that are out there,” Sherman Luna said.
During the winter storm that hit Tennessee, Republican state lawmakers filed legislation to help with the Trump administration’s mass deportations. The immigration package, crafted in coordination with the White House, would make it mandatory for local law enforcement to enter a formal agreement with ICE and stop noncitizens from buying a car, receiving government benefits or becoming a nurse.
When unveiling the legislation, House Speaker Cameron Sexton stressed that there’s a difference between legal and illegal immigration.
“We want to preserve legal immigration, especially for those who did it correctly in how to get here, as well as to protect taxpayers,” Sexton said.
Sherman Luna and other immigrant advocates take issue with the timing, given the winter weather. At least 29 people died in Tennessee, and hundreds of thousands were left without power in Nashville.
“We need our government officials, our state legislature, to be working on the kinds of policies that actually address the needs that our communities are facing,” Sherman Luna said.
During the storm, a Rutherford County mom was deported after a yearlong fight to get her infant daughter back from state custody.
Esther Lopez-Sanchez spent less than three days with her daughter before the Department of Children’s Services took her baby into custody. Officers detained Lopez-Sanchez and her ex-boyfriend for drug-related charges when she was pregnant. Her charges were later dropped, but she remained in jail.
“Under normal circumstances the person would be able to bond out and fight their case on the outside. But once they get an ICE hold, there is no way out,” said immigrant advocate Zeinab Al-Mathkour.
Lopez-Sanchez hasn’t seen her daughter since giving birth. She was sent to a Louisiana detention facility in November and stayed there until last week, when she was deported to Mexico.
A DCS spokesperson said the department cannot comment on the case because of confidentiality laws.
“I haven’t seen a reunification occur once the kids are in state custody,” Al-Mathkour said.
Back at the vigil, faith leaders said a prayer for Lopez-Sanchez and other families separated by borders because of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.
“Lord have mercy for families, parents and children who continue to be separated from one another,” the crowd prayed. “Lord have mercy.”
This story was produced by the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, a collaboration between West Virginia Public Broadcasting, WPLN and WUOT in Tennessee, LPM, WEKU, WKMS and WKU Public Radio in Kentucky, and NPR. Sign up for the weekly Porch Light newsletter here for news from around the region.