The state of Tennessee is “completely on board with cooperating with the federal government” on the issue of immigration enforcement, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily.
When asked about the latest on this front in the Volunteer State, Skrmetti emphasized that Tennessee is “completely on board with cooperating with the federal government.”
“We’ve got new immigration officials at the state level. We have new laws. We’ve got some laws that go into effect July 1 that deal with local and county officials and immigration laws and other laws. So right now, you know, I think the mayor of Nashville is being very careful about what lines he crosses,” he said, referencing Democrat Mayor Freddie O’Connell, who came under fire after accusations of obstructing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and allegedly revealing sensitive information, potentially endangering agents.
“I’m not sure every official is doing the same thing. People are allowed to disagree. People are allowed to express their opinions about what policies they like. If anybody’s out there actively interfering with federal law enforcement operations, that is a huge problem,” he said.
“Suffice to say, there’s a lot of scrutiny going on from a variety of directions. And you know, people who are exercising their First Amendment right can do so, but if there is an organized effort to undermine law enforcement activity — and particularly if there are public funds used to do that — that is a huge problem,” he continued.
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Host Mike Slater then asked what could be done at the state level to address a city interfering with federal law enforcement.
“Depending on the nature of it, the federal response might be more significant because there’s potential serious jail time there,” Skrmetti surmised.
“At the state level, we have a law coming into effect that says if a local official adopts a policy that contravenes state law there, there’s potential revenue hit. So state funds to the municipality can be suspended,” he explained.
“Depending on our state immigration laws and how they can place with what the locals are doing, you know, you could lose your city a lot of money by pushing too hard against immigration enforcement,” he added.
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
