Nashville Leftists Oppose Planned ICE Call Center

Image: Anti-ICE call center press conference – Nashville District 30 Councilwoman Sandra Sepulveda speaking Image Credit: Nashville Noticas / Facebook

Tennessee Conservative News [By Olivia Lupia] –

Nashville city leaders and leftist activists are looking to oppose a planned ICE call center after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security changed the contract’s location from Adams in Montgomery County to Nashville, claiming the facility will bring more harm to immigrant communities and saying they will attempt to legislatively hamstring the project.

A federal contract database shows that initially, the $63 million contract for the ICE immigration enforcement support center to Alaska-based company Koniag Government Services listed Adams, TN as the potential location, a rural town along the Kentucky border with a population of about 600. 

But towards the end of last week, an update to the database listed Nashville as the new location, showing a ZIP code covering the Donelson neighborhood near the Nashville International Airport.

 DHS has confirmed it is establishing a Public Safety Coordination Center designed to support ICE’s 287(g) program not just for the over 100 Tennessee agencies currently enrolled in the program, but nationwide.

Through 24/7 operation organized around 8-hour shifts, ICE has said the center is intended to “strengthen coordination” with state and local law enforcement partners across the country.

“The center will provide 287(g) partners with real-time operational support, case-related guidance, and direct access to ICE resources, improving response times and ensuring law enforcement has the support needed to protect communities and enforce federal immigration law,” read a department statement.

ICE did decline to confirm the specific location, citing a “coordinated campaign of violence” against its officers, a comment corroborated by DHS reports stating officers are facing “an 8,000% increase in death threats and a 1,300% increase in assaults against them,” as of June 2026.

However, the liberal sect of Nashville does not appear pleased with the news, with immigrant advocates and city leadership claiming the center conflicts with the city’s values and will “spread fear” in immigrant communities.

Several Metro City Council members recently hosted a press conference alongside representatives from the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TJFON), and other “community and faith leaders”, expressing their displeasure with a possible facility and pledging to oppose the center however they can.

“This call center is not Nashville, and we will make sure that we do everything in our power so that it is not here, ever. Because we have a responsibility to all Nashvillians, whether they were born here or raised here. They are Nashville,” District 30 Council Member Sandra Sepulveda said.

Sepulveda also said they are “currently looking at legislation that would look at any zoning and permitting at this time. So we are in the process of talking to community partners and different Metro officials to see what our path will be. Know that we are here, and we will be fighting with every breath we have until we find solutions.”

TJFON Executive Director Tessa Lemos Del Pino said, “The government is required by law to protect children living in this country without a guardian. This is to protect them from abuse, exploitation, or being trafficked. Instead, our government is funding a call center that extensively puts a target on their backs.”

But while Del Pino calls it “targeting”, ICE has previously said the national call center will help to locate these vulnerable unaccompanied migrant minors, a task the Trump Administration has taken very seriously. 

According to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, over 150,000 of 450,000 missing children have been recovered since the beginning of Trump’s second term, thanks to a special task force dedicated to the job.

A spokesperson from Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s office said his office is “still in the process of getting a consistent depiction of what is planned”, though it is likely he will ultimately stand in opposition should the project plans move forward.