As immigration enforcement in Tennessee faces increased scrutiny, state lawmakers want to further limit what records of ICE operations are open to the public.
HB 2506/SB 1464 would make confidential the names and addresses of officers involved in immigration enforcement — and shield any documents related to future operations from public records requests. If a state employee releases that information, they could be charged with a felony under the proposal.
Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, opposed the legislation in a Senate State and Local Government Committee hearing Tuesday.
“Most police officers walk around with badges that actually have their numbers. They have, oftentimes, their names because they are responsible to citizens, they are doing the public work,” Yarbro said.
Yarbro also referenced body camera footage of last May’s immigration raids, recently made public through an ongoing lawsuit by the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. The footage shows officers competing to make the most arrests and physically marking people to keep track of which team made each arrest.
“I am deeply wary that … our response to what we have seen, like public reporting of abuses, is to shield information,” Yarbro said.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, said that the internet has changed how law enforcement interacts with the public, and this bill is intended to protect officers from being doxed.
“They didn’t make the policies. They’re doing what they’re told to do by their superiors,” Johnson said. “We may have disagreements about those laws and how they should be enforced, but these men and women who get up every day and go out on the front lines … to protect us should be afforded … a degree of protection.”
Johnson originally filed the bill last summer, after the names of officers involved in an immigration raid were mistakenly posted on Metro Nashville’s website.
Johnson said he has received feedback from an open records group and that the legislation is in a “good place.” The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government confirmed in an email that the organization had been consulted.
“A good bit of our suggestions was incorporated in the amendment, although not everything,” TCOG Executive Director Deborah Fisher said.
TCOG had asked for a way to appeal to the courts for exceptions to the law, but that was not included in the final bill.
The measure advance along party lines Tuesday.
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