Mayor O'Connell has released a slew of documents in response to the federal inquiry and the investigation continues demanded more documents, including communications related to Executive Order 30, which required city employees to report ICE interactions. It looks like Ogles in on a fishing expedition.
I agree with those who say that the names of ICE agents should not be published, and Mayor O'Connell did that. However, from what I have gathered from news reports and from what the mayor has said, it appears that the names were already public records and that the mayor published them inadvertently. He has apologized. Maybe he should have been more cautious and slower to respond and that mistake could have been avoided.
In addition to the publishing of names of ICE agents, the other thing the Congressional inquiry is looking at is The Belonging Fund. This private fund helps immigrants in time of crisis. If an illegal immigrant is picked up and deporting or put in long-term detention, the fund may step in and help meet the immediate needs of the left behind family of the immigrant with things like rent, utilities and food. The Ogles probe is seeking to determine if any public funds were used to fund that fund. If they were, I would agree that that is inappropriate. I would find it inappropriate because I don't think any public funds should go to any non-profit without going through a transparent process.
I am not a fan of Mayor O'Connell. In the most recent mayoral race, I contributed money to and worked for his opponent. I am opposed to his recent tax hike. However, in this recent controversy, my sympathies are with the mayor. I also share the mayor's concern about unidentified masked people stopping and snatching people and retaining them simply because they look Hispanic. The vendetta against Mayor O'Connell seems to be out of proportion to what the major did. Other than publishing those names, it appears that O'Connell did nothing inappropriate. The mayor expressed his opinion in opposition the raids. That should not be against the law.
Below are news reports spreading more light on the topic.
Nashville’s Mayor Would Rather Not Be Tangled in an Immigration Fight
By Emily Cochrane, New York Times, June 24, 2025- Mayor Freddie O’Connell of Nashville would rather be talking about the state of the sidewalks. New traffic signals. Even the increase in the property tax rate. Instead, he has been busy addressing the fallout from a round of federal immigration raids last month in his liberal-leaning city.
First, angry residents accused city officials of helping federal agents detain more than 100 people during the raids, which Mr. O’Connell, a first-term Democrat, quickly denied. After the outcry, he ordered city departments to let his office know about any outreach from immigration agents; he also expressed support for a community fund that seeks private donations for immigrant families.
Tennessee Republicans then demanded investigations into whether the mayor had violated state law. The state has banned local governments from adopting “sanctuary city” policies, which it describes as limiting cooperation with immigration enforcement and giving undocumented immigrants “the right to lawful presence.”
Mr. O’Connell drew more Republican wrath when his office published the names of some immigration agents who had contacted the city. He has maintained that the names were published accidentally because they were in public records, including summaries of emergency calls.
The city has since removed the names and denies violating state law. Nonetheless, two congressional committees are investigating the effect of Nashville’s policies on federal immigration enforcement.
The backlash demonstrates how Mr. O’Connell, 48, is caught between the laws of his deeply Republican state and the progressive leanings of many of his constituents. It is perhaps the biggest test yet of his cautious pragmatism, at a moment when local leaders are on the front lines of the Trump administration’s aggressive overhaul of federal policy.
.... Mr. O’Connell, far more a policy wonk than a progressive firebrand, has intentionally avoided becoming a resistance figure in office. He has focused his criticism of the raids on the refusal of immigration officials to disclose whom they detained and why.
In the interview, he expressed some exasperation that “a tempest in a teapot” over his recent order requiring city departments to share knowledge about federal immigration outreach was grabbing local attention, rather than the budget he just signed or the impact of proposed federal cuts on Nashville, a diverse city of just over 700,000.
... Mr. Ogles is a leading member of the deeply conservative House Freedom Caucus. He has leveled the loudest attacks against Mr. O’Connell, accusing him of intimidating immigration officials with his recent executive order and enabling criminal behavior by not supporting President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The mayor’s “embrace of sanctuary lawlessness in Tennessee may very well be criminal,” Mr. Ogles said in a statement, calling Mr. O’Connell “a rogue mayor.” The documents that the mayor’s office turned over to Congress last week, Mr. Ogles added, “open multiple avenues of inquiry and raise serious questions the mayor must answer.” He did not provide details.
.... The mayor has also felt some heat from left-leaning constituents who say he could be doing more to openly support Nashville’s immigrant population. But now that Mr. Ogles is investigating Mr. O’Connell, some critics declined to publicly air their frustrations with the mayor, saying that they did not wish to undermine him or invite broader criticism. (read it all)
The below video is sympathetic to the Department of Homeland Security and Andy Ogles in this conflict with Mayor O'Connell but nevertheless is a good summary and is informative.
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