The newly created division has thus far ignored questions about its day-to-day operations; a recent report obtained by the Lookout describes some of its work.
Image Credit: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout
***Note from The Tennessee Conservative – this article posted here for informational purposes only. Per The Tennessee Lookout’s republishing guidelines, this article has been edited for style and length.
By Anita Wadhwani [Tennessee Lookout -CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] –
Since it was established last year, the Tennessee Centralized Immigration Enforcement Division has been responsible for overseeing state and local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement officials, and distributing grants to police departments and sheriffs that join the federal effort.
It was established by Republican lawmakers during the early months of President Donald Trump’s second term to mirror, at the state level, the deportation policies of the new federal administration.
Led by Chief Immigration Enforcement Officer Ryan Hubbard, a former border patrol agent and retired special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, the office operates under the Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security.
A report written in January by the division, obtained by the Tennessee Lookout through a public records request, provides a window into its activities thus far.
Between August and December, the division committed $866,843 in grant funding to seven sheriff’s offices and one municipal police department “for law enforcement equipment and operational expenses associated with immigration enforcement,” the report said. The report does not name the agencies receiving the grants.
The grants are part of $5 million in state funding set aside for local law enforcement agencies that agree to partner with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on so-called 287(g) cooperative agreements giving Tennessee officers and sheriff’s deputies expanded powers to conduct immigration enforcement.
Hubbard, the division’s chief, has travelled to 68 counties to encourage more local law enforcement agencies to partner with ICE and to apply for the grant.
Scores of local law enforcement agencies have signed agreements with ICE thus far.
According to the most recently posted federal data, more than 60 sheriffs’ departments, constable agencies and police departments have thus far entered into the federal agreements.
The work has not been without challenges, the report noted.
Hubbard has “spent a considerable amount of time countering false claims about the ICE 287(g) program from opponents of immigration enforcement,” the report said. “Ultimately, these challenges have not significantly impacted the mission of the CIED.”
When lawmakers voted to the creation of the division, they also approved making some of its records confidential.
The confidentiality provision applies largely to sensitive information received from federal, local or state law enforcement agencies, including sensitive information provided by local law enforcement agencies receiving state grants.
But the language of the public record exceptions doesn’t specifically include the names of agencies receiving grants or the amount of taxpayer funding they have gotten.
“You want to see where this money is going,” said Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government.
“Information including the identity of the grant recipient, in my view, is fairly open and the department should be transparent in how much they are giving to local law enforcement,” she said.
