Report: Restaurants in Downtown Nashville
Close Due to Fear of ICE Presence
Posted By: philsner, 5/13/2025 7:16:43 AM
Restaurants on Lower Broadway have shut down due to fears of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s presence in Nashville. Fox 17 reported that at least two restaurants closed last weekend due to the rumored presence of law enforcement. “It’s just creating this general sense of fear all the time,” said a manager to Fox 17. “There were rumors flying around about ICE being on Lower Broadway. It was credible enough that we had to close the restaurant because back-of-house staff had to leave. Everyone split.”
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Metro Nashville leaders respond to the
Department of Homeland Security’s arrest announcement 9 replies
Department of Homeland Security’s arrest announcement 9 replies
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Several Nashville leaders have responded to a press release from the Department of Homeland Security detailing arrests made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Tennessee Highway Patrol. On Tuesday, the DHS put out a press release detailing that 196 individuals were arrested over the course of a joint operation between ICE and THP. The DHS claimed that 95 of those people had prior criminal convictions, identifying and detailing five. None of the other identities or charges have been released.Within the same press release, the DHS said that Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell stood “by pro-illegal policies.”
Prior to its recent donation to the “Belonging Fund,” a new initiative established by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell to support illegal immigrants following a joint law enforcement operation between the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) received nearly $3 million in government grants since 2020.
TIRRC has condemned the recent immigration enforcement in Nashville that has seen more than 100 arrests, claiming law enforcement was “kidnapping our people off the street based on nothing but the color of their skin.”
The group’s opposition to immigration enforcement led it to donate more than $30,000
Nashville School Superintendent Refers Students to ‘Belonging Fund’ Created to Support Illegal Immigrants
May 13, 2025 Tom Pappert
Dr Battle
The new “Belonging Fund” announced by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell to support illegal immigrants was reportedly presented to Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) students as a resource by Superintendent Dr. Adrienne Battle.
Battle directed students to the fund on Monday in response to a letter purportedly written by students concerned about the joint immigration enforcement operation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP), according to WPLN, which reported about 80 students voiced their concerns in a letter addressed to O’Connell and Battle.
Rep. Green calls on THP to release more
details on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s 2022
traffic stop 5 replies
details on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s 2022
traffic stop 5 replies
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – U.S. House Homeland Security chairman Rep. Mark Green (R-Tennessee) is calling on authorities to be more transparent about a 2022 Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) traffic stop of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March. On May 2, the THP released a redacted video of a traffic stop dated Nov. 30, 2022, involving Abrego Garcia in Cookeville. The 29-year-old was pulled over for speeding in a vehicle with eight passengers and told state troopers they’d been working in Missouri.
Restaurants on Lower Broadway have shut down due to fears of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s presence in Nashville.
Fox 17 reported that at least two restaurants closed last weekend due to the rumored presence of law enforcement.
“It’s just creating this general sense of fear all the time,” said a manager to Fox 17. “There were rumors flying around about ICE being on Lower Broadway. It was credible enough that we had to close the restaurant because back-of-house staff had to leave. Everyone split.”
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell on Friday reportedly signed an executive order to establish protocols for various Metro Nashville departments to provide the mayor’s office with any information deemed “immigration communications,” which might reflect forthcoming federal immigration enforcement in the city.
O’Connell appears to have actually amended his Executive Order 30, which is titled Communications Between Federal Immigration Authorities and the Metropolitan Government. The order mandates any communication to Nashville police, fire, emergency management, or emergency communications personnel by federal immigration law enforcement, or their federal agencies, be reported to the Mayor’s Office of New Americans.
The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), a Nashville-based nonprofit that has condemned the recent immigration enforcement operation in the area, was previously asked by federal agencies under the Biden administration to facilitate the release of thousands of illegal immigrants into the Volunteer State.
As news emerged that the joint operation [snip] had resulted in nearly 100 arrests, TIRRC Executive Director Lisa Sherman Luna reportedly accused the state and federal law enforcement agencies of “terrorizing our communities” by “kidnapping our people off the street based on nothing but the color of their skin.”
Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell and members of the Metro Nashville Council are resorting to performative politics in response to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducting operations in Middle Tennessee as an effort to appease and retain its radical left-wing voter base.
Beginning Saturday evening, ICE and the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) have been conducting joint immigration enforcement operations in Middle Tennessee which has seen the arrests of over 100 individuals, including illegal aliens with violent criminal histories.
Mayor O’Connell and the Metro Council have since condemned the law enforcement operations.
A response to two Open Records Requests filed by The Tennessee Star with the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDOSHS), the agency that oversees the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP), revealed that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle registered in Texas when he was stopped in Cookeville, Tennessee on November 30, 2022 and suspected of human trafficking.
Though the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has confirmed the vehicle driven by Abrego Garcia was registered to Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, a convicted human smuggler who was arrested in 2019 on a smuggling trip from Houston, Texas,
Body camera footage obtained by The Tennessee Star on Thursday as the result of an Open Records Request filed with the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDOSHS) reveals Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) officers discuss their suspicion that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was “hauling these people for money” during the November 30, 2022 traffic stop of the vehicle he was driving in Cookeville, Tennessee.
It also shows the moment THP released Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran citizen deported by the Trump administration in March, at the instruction of the “Biden-era FBI.”
Though the video released by TDOSHS is largely redacted, with significant portions of audio missing, and other identifying information,
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) declined on Tuesday to comment on its active investigation into Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the citizen of El Salvador deported last month, after two attorneys with the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDOSHS) informed The Tennessee Star of the federal investigation.
The revelation that Abrego Garcia is subject to an active investigation made to The Star after it inquired about the status of the Open Records Request filed on April 17 by Michael Patrick Leahy with TDOSHS, which the agency effectively denied due to its failure to respond within seven business days, as required by the Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA).
The Open Records Request filed on April 17 by Tennessee Star Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, seeking video and written records from the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) stop of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in December 2022, was denied on Monday without explanation by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDOSHS).
The Tennessee Public Records Act provides state agencies with seven business days to respond to valid Open Records Requests, and explicitly states that “[f]ailure to respond to the request” constitutes “a denial,” which gives Leahy the right to sue to compel the agency to take action.
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg held a town hall in the influential early-contest state of Iowa on Tuesday, potentially fueling added speculation about another presidential run for the prominent Democrat. Buttigieg held the town hall with VoteVets, a progressive political action committee advocating on issues like national security and veterans’ care, in Cedar Rapids, marking the first time he’s been back to Iowa since the end of the Biden administration. The former 2020 presidential candidate noted that he’s not currently a public official, nor is he actively running for office and called on officials to take part in more events
Over the years, numerous studies, speeches and books have focused on a phenomenon known as self-sabotage. The subjects are highly successful people who throw it all away by behaving recklessly when they get to the top of the heap. Think Bill Clinton with Monica Lewinsky. Overconfidence, boredom and a notorious quest for power are among the reasons commonly identified as explanations for the destructive cycle.
LOS ANGELES — Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg said Friday that Democrats have to figure out how to grow their party in order to help younger people pay their bills and focus on having fun and sex. He told comedian Bill Maher during an appearance on the “Real Time” show that assisting younger people with getting by will allow them to “focus on what young people should be focused on.” (snip) “Young people should be able to focus on what young people should be focused on, which is how to get laid and how to go and have fun,” the vice chair continued.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin hinted Monday that he’s preparing to roll back one car feature that every driver “hates.”
“Start/stop technology: where your car dies at every red light so companies get a climate participation trophy,” Zeldin tweeted Monday in a post that has since racked up more than 8 million views.
“EPA approved it, and everyone hates it, so we’re fixing it.”
The feature kills internal combustion engines at red lights and has been touted by proponents for being able to conserve fuel and cut down on pollution.
Critics have questioned whether the feature can wear down the car’s battery or engine more quickly.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has taken steps towards removing gun control activist and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor David Hogg as vice chairman.
On Monday, the credentials committee of the DNC voted 13-2 to void the election results from February in which Hogg and Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D) were elected to serve as co-vice chairmen of the DNC, according to the New York Times. The vote comes as Hogg is reportedly planning to “spend up to $20 million” to fund “primary campaigns against incumbent Democrats.”
Per the outlet, the decision from the credentials committee came after “three hours of internal debate and one tie vote,”
Restaurants on Lower Broadway have shut down due to fears of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s presence in Nashville.
Fox 17 reported that at least two restaurants closed last weekend due to the rumored presence of law enforcement.
“It’s just creating this general sense of fear all the time,” said a manager to Fox 17. “There were rumors flying around about ICE being on Lower Broadway. It was credible enough that we had to close the restaurant because back-of-house staff had to leave. Everyone split.”
Democrat Rep. Shiri Thanedar (MI) has introduced a resolution to force a chamber-wide impeachment vote against President Trump.
Thanedar introduced “his impeachment resolution as privileged on Tuesday afternoon, meaning leaders have two days of the House in session to take up the legislation,” per Fox News.
No House Republicans have signaled support for the measure, and leaders could potentially keep lawmakers from voting on impeachment at all.
When deeming his resolution privileged, Thanedar said the president “has unlawfully conducted himself, bringing shame to the presidency and the people of the United States,” while calling the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) a “flagrantly unconstitutional creation.”
Democrats have not backed the impeachment resolution,
Episcopal Church refuses to resettle White
South African refugees in clash with Trump administration 23 replies
South African refugees in clash with Trump administration 23 replies
The Episcopal Church’s migration service said it will refuse the Trump administration's request to help resettle dozens of White South Africans granted refugee status by the federal government. In a statement, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe said the Episcopal Migration Ministries will instead terminate its partnership with the government. The announcement came shortly before 59 South Africans arrived in the United States.
"In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step," Rowe said of the government's request that the church help resettle the South African citizens.
Democrat Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) is slated to introduce a reparations resolution this week, as she believes it is a “moral and legal obligation” for Americans.
The resolution itself involves the U.S. spending “trillions” on reparations for black Americans. The resolution points to Jim Crow laws as part of the justification for the use of U.S. tax dollars going toward this effort.
“This is a moment in time where societies are shaped [and] new societies are built. We should be the ones who are shaping it,” Lee said, enraged that President Donald Trump ended many diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) measures with the “stroke of a pen.”
In his latest proposal to end the war in Ukraine, former President Donald Trump reportedly offered Vladimir Putin a dangerous concession: de jure recognition of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The proposal appears to accept the idea that Crimea was once part of Russia and that returning it to Russia would restore historical justice.
This logic is not just politically reckless, it is historically and legally indefensible. It echoes the imperial narrative Putin himself has long advanced: that modern Russia is the rightful heir to the entire Russian Empire[snip]
Crimea was never part of Russia, and the Russian Federation is not a successor to the entire Russian Empire.
The days of rogue district court judges hijacking executive authority may finally be numbered. On Thursday, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a consolidated case, Trump v. CASA, which challenges lower court rulings that blocked President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants. Despite the constitutional authority granted to the executive branch on immigration matters, three district judges issued sweeping nationwide injunctions halting the order. Now, the highest court may have the chance to rein in judicial overreach and restore balance between the branches of government.
Since President Trump began his second term,
New Beard, Same Buttigieg
17 replies
I wish I could locate the Twitter wit who said, during the Biden administration, that "Pete Buttigieg is so bad at being Secretary of Transportation that people actually know the name of the Secretary of Transportation." (Snip) Nothing seems to stand in the way of the unaccomplished former Indiana mayor taking another stab at his party's presidential nomination — and he's so serious about rebranding himself that he's even grown a beard.
The beard jokes write themselves, but I'm not here to take cheap shots at Buttigieg; I'm here to take high-class, data-rich cheap shots.
Join me, won't you?