The mayor of Nashville, Tenn., has “jeopardized” the safety of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and their families, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says.
“Mayor Freddie O’Connell has gone after our ICE individuals and agents that work with [Homeland Security Investigations],” Noem said at a press conference in Nashville on Friday.
O’Connell, a Democrat, has “openly doxed” ICE agents, Noem continued, “revealed their information to the public, encouraged people to work against them and their efforts to clean up the streets of Nashville, and he has forced his city officials, his employees of the city of Nashville, to document every single interaction that they have with federal immigration authorities.”
“What the mayor is doing to the city is shameful,” Noem said, later adding that O’Connell’s “priorities are completely screwed up, and he doesn’t deserve to be mayor. He doesn’t deserve to be in office.”
Noem’s criticism of O’Connell comes about a month after O’Connell defended the release of names of immigration agents in a public record. The names were later redacted, but O’Connell said he would not classify the release of the names as “doxing.”
Asked in June if he thought releasing the names of the immigration enforcement officers endangered them, O’Connell said he “would not say it was an endangerment process.”
“I would say they may have some concerns. I’m far more concerned about the overall dynamic we have about unmarked, unidentifiable masked people whisking people into vehicles. I think that’s a bigger concern,” he said.
O’Connell is one of many Democrats to raise concerns over ICE agents masking their faces when they make arrests.
The release of the names followed an executive order O’Connell signed requiring some local authorities, such as local police, to document and report all interactions with federal immigration authorities.
“O’Connell and his administration are playing politics, and they’re playing politics to a dangerous level that’s risking people’s lives,” Noem said at the press conference that highlighted arrests of the “worst of the worst” criminal illegal aliens in and around Nashville.
O’Connell did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
ICE officials are facing an 830% increase in assaults since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, according to DHS.
“Leftists have doxed, attacked, and tried to intimidate the men and women who uphold our laws,” Noem says, adding that as a result, immigration officials are facing “violence against them and their families.”
In states and cities that are not cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts, Noem said, “we’re going to have to put more federal officers there in order to run our operations safely.”
While ICE is facing opposition from leaders in cities such as Nashville, Noem said, DHS has “over 800 agreements across this country with other city, local, and state officials that partner with us every single day. And we’re so thrilled to have those leaders in those cities being grateful that we’re there cleaning up their streets and getting dangerous individuals off their streets.”
Since Jan. 20, nearly 300,000 illegal aliens have been arrested in the U.S., 70% of whom have either been convicted of a crime or face pending criminal charges, according to Noem.