Hundreds pack Wilson County meeting to speak out against ICE detention facility

Residents packed a Wilson County Commission meeting Tuesday to speak against the prospect of an ICE detention center. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

Hundreds of residents turned out to the Wilson County Commission meeting Tuesday to speak against the prospect of an immigration detention center coming to their community.

On Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement retracted a previous statement that it had purchased property in Lebanon to use as an immigrant detention facility whose construction and operations would “bring 7,216 jobs to the area and would contribute $829.5 million to GDP.”

But many of the more than 40 people who directly addressed the commission said they did not know what to believe and distrusted ICE, whose initial statement about plans for the Lebanon detention center sparked a firestorm in the community after the Tennessee Lookout first broke the news Friday.

“The leaders in this room were not meaningfully consulted before this announcement,” said Natalie Flores, a Lebanon resident.

“That should concern all of us. Not just the lack of transparency, which I do assume is to minimize community outrage until it’s too late…but it also is an insult to our community that the federal government does not respect this community or our local leadership enough to involve us in such a significant decision.”

Wilson County Mayor Randall Hutto said he was contacted early last week about the possibility of an ICE facility on Highway 109. He did not say who contacted him. Hutto conferred with local officials and could find no evidence the federal government had purchased property. 

“We kind of dismissed that” until Friday, when he was contacted by a reporter, he said.

The mayor then reached out to “every official we could think of” and property owners and agents, but as of late Tuesday he had found no property transactions tied to an ICE facility, noting the possibility that individuals could be under a non-disclosure agreement. Hutto said he had also seen the retraction ICE issued late Tuesday.

“So I really do not know if they’re coming or not,” Hutto said. 

Hutto noted the county commission has no authority over a facility in Lebanon.

But for more than two hours, the commissioners heard from residents who urged them to take proactive steps to block a detention center from coming to their suburban community, located about 30 miles east of Nashville. Residents crowded the meeting room with a capacity for about 100 seats, standing along the walls while an overflow crowd of several hundred people congregated in hallways on two floors to watch the hearing on monitors.

Wilson is one of the fastest growing counties in the state; the population boom is already placing a strain on school capacity and infrastructure, many speakers noted.

Other speakers noted the potential “reputational harm” a large-scale detention center could bring, citing violent ICE actions in Minneapolis and across the nation. Several highlighted reports of poor conditions children and adults endured in existing ICE detention centers. Some urged the commissioners to enact a resolution that made clear the community’s opposition. Only one speaker spoke in favor of a facility; he was met with chants of “shame, shame” before he walked out.

“To hear an ICE facility was coming to our town terrified me,” said John Ross, a Wilson county resident. “They’re not here to protect us. ICE is going to radicalize many in Wilson County if this happens. It’s hard to ignore state violence happening in your own town.”