During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) called on the Department of Justice to investigate Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell (D-TN) for his response to ICE arrests in the city.
00:00Mr. President. Senator from Tennessee. Thank you, Mr. President. What we have come to realize is under the last administration, the American people really suffered from open borders, crime, and lawlessness.
00:20And they spoke out about this, and in November, they issued a mandate to President Trump. And, of course, we talk a lot about the economic impact of that. We talk about the health, but we also focus on the Make America Safe Again provisions.
00:43And I will say this. Since he was elected in November and sworn in in January, President Trump has done exactly that. He has worked to make this country safe, to make our communities safer.
01:04And what we have seen in operations across the country is that the Trump administration has committed to getting criminal, illegal aliens out of our communities and off of our streets.
01:22We have seen that in Tennessee. Now, in recent weeks, the Department of Homeland Security has worked with the Tennessee State Highway Patrol, and they have arrested 196 criminal, illegal aliens in Nashville, Tennessee.
01:46Now, these are people that ought not to have ever been in the country. They're violent criminals, members of Trendyragua, members of MS-13. They're drug dealers. They're sex traffickers. They're human traffickers.
02:06And you know what? People said, I can't believe we had that many drug dealers, sex traffickers, gang leaders, gang cubs that were here in our community.
02:27And when you start to look at the crimes of some of these people, Mr. President, people are a guest at what they have learned.
02:43And they're grateful that President Trump, Secretary Noem, Tom Holman, who is our border czar, decided to come into Nashville and get these people off our streets and out of our communities.
03:04Now, here's what we know about some of these. One of them is a Salvadoran national who is affiliated with MS-13.
03:17Now, he probably left El Salvador because he has been wanted for murder in his home country.
03:32That's the charge against him. Murder.
03:38Tennesseans are saying, look, we want to make certain we get these individuals deported.
03:45And I was talking to one of our local law enforcement officers there in Middle Tennessee, and I said, tell me what you think about ICE and Homeland Security and the work they're doing.
03:58He said, I am happy to see them here. We welcome them.
04:04We're glad they're working with the highway patrol because when you get these criminals and these gang leaders off our streets, you make the community safer and you make our jobs a little bit safer.
04:24And we're seeing the benefits of these deportations of criminal illegal aliens on a nationwide scale.
04:33I give you the example of Nashville because I represent Tennessee.
04:38But we know that nationally, since Inauguration Day, ICE has arrested more than 66,000 criminal illegal aliens.
04:52The vast majority have prior criminal convictions and charges, including, as I've mentioned, violent MS-13 and Trendyaragua gang members.
05:04Thousands more were charged or convicted of assault, weapons offenses, sex crimes and murder.
05:13And when these criminals are taken off the street, you know what happens, Mr. President?
05:20Crime goes down.
05:22Safety improves.
05:24Now, in February, and I think this is a great example of results.
05:30So, in February, ICE targeted more than 100 Trendyaragua gang members that had taken over an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado.
05:44Many people saw this.
05:46I'm certain many of my colleagues saw this reporting on the news.
05:51Now, that same quarter, that first quarter of the year, overall crime in the city declined by 22%.
06:04That is what happens when you go after people that are breaking the law, that have come into the country illegally, and came in with ill intent.
06:18Now, despite the success that we have seen, whether it's Nashville or whether it's Aurora, Colorado, my Democratic colleagues are still demonizing these efforts in law enforcement
06:33and demanding an end to arrest and trying to stop deportations, and some are even working to undermine our brave and courageous law enforcement officers.
06:48Now, the mayor's office in Nashville has been one that has tried to obstruct these.
06:57And they were claiming that ISIS detainment of violent gang members and rapists is, and I quote them, making it harder to keep people safe.
07:11So, the mayor's office and the mayor doxed federal law enforcement officers who were involved in these operations.
07:21They released their names, they released details about different operations.
07:27So, they were doxing and unmasking the operation and the investigator or the agent's name.
07:39So, what happens when the mayor does that is, basically, you're serving up a treasure trove of information to the gang leaders.
07:53You make the officers less safe, all law enforcement officers.
07:59You make the communities less safe, and you encourage people to target the operations or the officers.
08:16So, what we have seen is this makes the job of law enforcement more difficult.
08:25It undermines President Trump's efforts to make our nation safe, and, in essence, it has turned Nashville into a sanctuary city.
08:37And, interestingly enough, in the state of Tennessee, it is illegal to have a sanctuary city.
08:45And, because of the actions of the office of the mayor and Mayor O'Connell, DHS has deemed Nashville a sanctuary jurisdiction.
08:59And, all of this, we need to realize, is happening as ICE agents have seen, over the past couple of months, a 413 percent increase in assaults.
09:14I will tell you, I think that our law enforcement officers, our Homeland Security investigators, and our agents deserve our support for removing criminal illegal aliens from our communities.
09:36So, on Friday, I sent a letter urging A.G. Bondi to investigate the mayor's actions and the actions of his office and determine whether he is using taxpayer dollars to aid illegal aliens and to obstruct our federal law enforcement efforts.
09:59I will also use every tool in the Senate to investigate the mayor in his office and hold him to account for threatening the safety of Tennesseans.
10:10And, make no mistake, if the mayor is found by the Department of Justice to be working outside of the rule of law, he should resign his position.
10:22And, unfortunately, he's not the only Democrat mayor that needs DOJ to investigate them.
10:31We've seen the mayors of Chicago and Boston in their offices.
10:35They've repeatedly stated that their police departments will refuse to cooperate with ICE to apprehend criminal illegal aliens.
10:45Now, think about this.
10:47These are criminals that are robbing people.
10:54They're doing carjackings.
10:56They're assaulting people.
10:59Many of them are abusing children.
11:03They're wanted in their home countries.
11:05And, you have elected officials that are siding with and trying to protect criminal illegal aliens instead of siding with and trying to protect law-abiding citizens.
11:27While this obstruction makes it harder for federal law enforcement to do their jobs, they're still working to remove these criminals from the streets of Chicago and Boston and, of course, Nashville.
11:43Just last month, ICE announced that they arrested the Trente-Aragua gang members who shot and killed three people at a house party in Chicago in December.
11:55Criminal illegal aliens shot and killed three citizens.
12:03And, in Boston, ICE agents apprehended nearly 1,500 illegal aliens during Operation Patriot last month, making the largest ICE operation to date in our nation's history.
12:18More than half of those 1,500 have major criminal convictions, not just charged, but convictions and charges.
12:34Murder, rape, drug trafficking, abuse of children, all among that number, 1,500.
12:40These are horrific crimes committed by illegal alien criminals who were roaming free in American cities until ICE comes in and apprehends them.
12:59While they continue to side with criminals, these are the Democrat mayors and those city councils, Republicans are supporting the president's efforts to maintain the rule of law so that there are no more innocent victims.
13:17Like, Larisha Sherrill Thompson, the South Carolina mother of two who was allegedly murdered in cold blood last month by six illegal aliens who were trying to steal her car.
13:33Or Ava Moore, an 18-year-old Air Force cadet candidate who was killed while kayaking in Texas over Memorial Day weekend by an illegal alien who, according to authorities, hit her with a jet ski and then fled the scene.
13:55Or the 12 people, including a Holocaust survivor who were set on fire on Sunday in an anti-Semitic terror attack.
14:07The suspect, an Egyptian national who overstayed his visa after entering under Biden's open borders.
14:16Mr. President, this has to come to a stop.
14:21And Tennesseans say, what can we do about this?
14:26Well, I have the CLEAR Act, which we've had for a time.
14:30It would ensure that state and local law enforcement officials have the explicit authority to assist the federal government in our immigration enforcement efforts.
14:43Basically, it would codify the 287G program.
14:47And this week, I'm introducing legislation that is backed by the White House, which would establish a deportation shot clock,
14:56which would require the federal government to deport an illegal alien within 15 days of a court order for removal.
15:07Right now, it takes 90 days.
15:09We think the deportation shot clock will empower the Trump administration to expedite deportations of these criminals and get them off our streets.
15:23And following the dangerous actions of our Nashville Mayor O'Connell and his office,
15:31I'm also introducing legislation that will make it illegal to dox federal law enforcement officials who are working to get these criminal illegal aliens off the streets.
15:46We realized, after this occurrence, that they were not included in the covered person's provisions.
15:54So I invite my Democrat colleagues to join us in this.
16:00If not, I invite them to come down here.
16:03Talk about why they would choose to support criminal illegal aliens instead of working to make our community safer and to uphold the rule of law.
