(The Center Square) – Officers with Immigration Customs and Enforcement would be prohibited from entering Tennessee schools and churches unless they first give notice if a bill sponsored by a Memphis lawmaker passes.
House Bill 1482, filed Thursday by Democrat Gabby Salinas, said she has received information that ICE agents are patrolling Memphis schools and churches.
“No child or person should fear being abducted or risk having their family ripped apart when they leave their home,” Salinas said. “We are losing friends, neighbors, caretakers, and community members daily.”
Salinas is a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the presence of the National Guard in Memphis, which is scheduled to be heard in the Tennessee Court of Appeals in March. She told TCS in a previous interview that the presence of the guard was causing “fear.”
“They’re not respecting our Constitution. They’re casting a wide net,” Salinas said. “They are stopping people and asking questions later. We’re not seeing a targeted approach where, ‘OK, these are warrants that we’re going to go after today and we’re going to put all efforts behind finding these people.'”
The National Guard and ICE are part of the Memphis Safe Street Task Force, a partnership between state, federal, and local law enforcement that Republicans have said is helping to bring down crime.
“Today marks day 100 of the Memphis Safe Task Force’s operations,” U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn said in a social media post on Wednesday. “In that time, we’ve seen a true success story: nearly 5,000 arrests, 800 illegal guns seized, and over 130 missing children located.”
Salinas filed her bill a day after an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. She was in a Minneapolis roadway where agents were working.
The Department of Homeland Security said Good was “attempting to run over our law enforcement officers,” and the shots fired were defensive. Critics of enhanced enforcement of federal immigration law have called the shooting a “murder.”
“Incidents like the one experienced in Minneapolis, Minn. yesterday demonstrate how lawless and dangerous these ICE interactions have become in our country,” Salinas said. “Now is the time that we as Tennesseans come together and to reject fear and violence and recognize our shared humanity.”
The bill will be considered when lawmakers return to Nashville next week.
