(The Center Square) – Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson and House Speaker Cameron Sexton want to make it a state crime for public officials to release the names of immigration officers.
They filed a bill that would make revealing the names a Class E felony and allow the public official to be removed from office. The Tennessee General Assembly doesn’t go back in session until January.
Johnson and Sexton were clear in a release that the bill was aimed at Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, who is accused of releasing the names of immigration officers who participated in a May operation that led to the arrest of 196 people. O’Connell issued an executive order requiring city employees to report contact with ICE to his office.
“Mayor O’Connell’s public refusal to rescind his executive order makes the need for this legislation unmistakably clear to prevent future political defiance that undermines the rule of law and puts law enforcement at risk,” Johnson said. “It sends a message not only to Mayor O’Connell, but to any other blue-city mayor who may consider following his lead: Tennessee will protect its officers, not sacrifice them for political theater.”
Sexton used the situation in Los Angeles as an example of what he doesn’t want in the Volunteer State.
“Tennessee has always stood with law enforcement and we will not allow politically motivated actors to put officers’ lives in danger simply to score political points with the far left” Sexton said. “Tennessee will not become California, and Nashville will not become LA or San Francisco on our watch.”
O’Connell has made few comments in the past week as federal and state lawmakers have criticized him for his executive order.
“Our focus is on participating in conversations,” the mayor said in a published report. “We don’t spend as much energy on statements. I think if they have specific requests, we’ll pay attention to those.”
Two committees in the U.S. House of Representatives opened a formal investigation and sent a letter to O’Connell asking for more information and documents pertaining to the order. O’Connell has until Thursday at 5 p.m. to respond, according to the letter.
