The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office recently announced a major victory against a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plan that would have released large numbers of illegal immigrants, including convicted criminals, into the state.
After a lawsuit was filed by Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s office, ICE was forced to reveal critical details about its previously undisclosed strategy, which would have allowed thousands of immigration detainees, including those with serious criminal backgrounds, to be transported into Tennessee.
This all stems from a discovery made back in 2022 by Governor Bill Lee's administration, when they found out that ICE had been coordinating with local immigration advocacy groups and officials in Nashville to prepare for a mass release of detainees. The plan, initially timed around the anticipated end of the Title 42 public health order, sparked outrage among state leaders, particularly Governor Lee and Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, who immediately took action.
According to documents obtained by the Attorney General’s office, ICE had planned to release thousands of "single adult" detainees into Tennessee, a plan that was only halted after the state took legal action.
Among the detainees ICE was prepared to release were individuals convicted of serious crimes, including murder, sexual assault, armed robbery, kidnapping, and drug trafficking. These revelations have raised significant concerns about federal oversight and the potential risks to public safety in Tennessee.
AG Skrmetti made no effort to mince words when addressing the gravity of the situation. “The federal government’s single most important job is to keep dangerous people out of our country, and instead it has let killers and rapists illegally cross our border and walk free on our streets,” he stated, highlighting the dangerous consequences of poor immigration enforcement and a broken system.
While ICE eventually scrapped its plan to release detainees into Tennessee following the state’s legal action, the documents revealed that over 7,000 detainees were released directly from ICE facilities in Louisiana during the same period. Among them, more than 30 were classified as the highest-level security threats, underscoring the scope of the issue that Tennessee officials had sought to prevent.
This incident adds fuel to an already heated debate over immigration and border security, with Tennessee leaders demanding transparency and accountability from federal authorities. Skrmetti vowed to continue fighting for state sovereignty and public safety, noting that “while the urgent work to fix our broken immigration system continues in Washington, my office will keep fighting for transparency and accountability."
Adding to the concerns, the Department of Homeland Security recently announced that it has flagged more than 600 migrants with possible ties to a violent Venezuelan gang, recommending that over 100 be added to an FBI watchlist. While officials are still investigating whether all these individuals are gang members or if some are simply relatives or victims, the news has only heightened the sense of urgency in addressing immigration concerns at both the state and national levels.