FIRST ON FOX: Another Democrat is being brought under scrutiny over their handling of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.
Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., wrote a letter this week urging two top House committees to investigate Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, who the Trump administration accused of supporting “pro-illegal policies.”
Ogles said O’Connell’s “recent actions raise serious questions about whether a municipal official is now obstructing federal law enforcement and possibly even actively aiding and abetting illegal aliens.”
Ogle’s district includes part of Nashville.
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It comes amid continued fallout from three House Democrats accused of “storming” an ICE facility in Newark, New Jersey. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was also among those who ran through the gates of the detention center following a bus full of detainees, was arrested.
ICE agents working with the Tennessee Highway Patrol arrested nearly 200 people who the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said were illegal immigrants – many of them criminals with gang affiliations or other sordid pasts.
The DHS news release targeted O’Connell by name over comments he made in early May. “What’s clear today is that people who do not share our values of safety and community have the authority to cause deep community harm.”
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After the arrests, O’Connell signed an executive order aimed at tracking peoples’ interactions with federal immigration authorities, according to WSMV4.
He said of ICE’s work in his city, “It’s important for us to get this right, and it’s very frustrating to see a failure in the process.”
“Rather than commend law enforcement for removing dangerous individuals from the streets, the mayor chose instead to signal that federal agents are to be surveilled and distrusted—not supported,” Ogles wrote in his letter.
“This executive order is not a transparency initiative. It is already being operationalized as a political weapon.”
The Trump administration has had several showdowns with Democratic city and state officials over the White House’s crackdown on illegal immigrants.
His letter ended with a former request to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., to open a probe into O’Connell and other Nashville officials accused of blocking ICE.
Jordan is already holding a hearing next week on threats to ICE operations. The incident in Newark earlier this month is expected to be featured heavily during the event.
“Our immigration system depends on cooperation and trust across all levels of government,” Ogles wrote. “When elected officials weaponize their offices to score political points by undermining federal law enforcement, they compromise public safety and the rule of law.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Nashville mayor’s office as well as spokespeople for Jordan and Green for comment.
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