In a swing through Nashville to highlight immigration crackdowns, Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem called the city’s mayor undeserving of office, accused a local university of obstructing justice and pledged a more visible immigration enforcement presence on the city’s streets.
Noem spoke to reporters to highlight what Trump administration officials are calling the “worst of the worst” among immigrants with criminal histories.
She spotlighted the arrests of four unnamed men in Tennessee whom, she said, are illegal immigrants tied to gangs or terrorism and accused of crimes that include homicide, promoting prostitution and child rape.
“President Trump has been focused ever since he’s been in office on making America safe again,” Noem said. The president, she said, promised “to make sure we’re going after the worst of the worst every single day, to get the murderers, the rapists, the child pedophiles and pornographers off of our streets and out of the country.”
Noem then pivoted to take aim at Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell.
O’Connell updated a longstanding policy requiring city personnel to report interactions with federal immigration agents to the mayor’s office, requiring notice within 24 hours instead of three days required under the previous policy. O’Connell implemented the policy update after immigration raids swept up nearly 200 people in May.
Nashville, like the majority of Tennessee jurisdictions, has also not opted into formal cooperation agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a point of contention with state Republicans leaders, who have offered incentives to enter into the agreements, and Trump administration officials, who have encouraged more such local partnerships.
“I’m specifically calling out the mayor of Nashville,” Noem said.
“By his rhetoric and by what he is requiring his city employees to do, and by not having the backs of these ICE officers, he is allowing more children to be trafficked, more children to be victimized and more families to suffer because of his actions and politics,” she said.
“He doesn’t deserve to be mayor. He doesn’t deserve to be in office,” said Noem, who also called O’Connell’s actions “shameful.”
Noem also took aim at Belmont University, a private Christian institution in Nashville with about 9000 students.
Townhall, a conservative website, this week accused the school of sheltering undocumented students and subverting a Trump administration ban on campus diversity initiatives.
“We’re seeing obstruction against federal immigration law by Belmont University,” Noem said.
“As you know, they’ve openly said that they will house illegal immigrants on their campus and do that in defiance of the federal government,” she said.
A Belmont spokesperson on Friday said, “we are aware of comments from government officials and maintain that the university is in compliance with federal laws.”
O’Connell’s office did not immediately respond to questions about Noem’s remarks.
Noem also weighed in on the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was brought to Nashville to face two human smuggling charges after a Trump administration attorney admitted the Maryland father of three had wrongly been deported to El Salvador.
Calling Abrego a “monster,” Noem said the case against him was “overwhelming” and said she hopes the federal judge presiding over the case, Waverly Crenshaw, Jr. “does the right thing and brings this man to justice.”
Crenshaw is currently weighing a motion by federal prosecutors to keep Abrego, a Salvadoran national, detained pending trial while Abrego’s attorneys in a separate case are fighting the Trump administration over its plans to deport him to a “third country.”
Noem promised Nashville residents they could soon see more immigration enforcement, pledging “dozens” of new agents now that Trump has signed into law the “big beautiful bill,” which includes substantial increases in the budget of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“What the people of Nashville will see is obviously more individuals and agents, but they’ll also see more training and equipment,” she said without detailing what types of equipment. At a Nashville press conference, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem placed photos of immigrants she claimed had been arrested for serious crimes. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
“Dozens more officers and agents will be here in the Nashville area,” she said.
The media also served as a target for Noem’s criticism on Friday for promoting what she characterized as “false narratives” about the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement activities.
Asked by a journalist about the targeting of immigrants based on “skin color,” Noem sharply snapped back:
“That has been another false narrative that has been put out there in the media that I absolutely want to throw back at you and say that is absolutely false, and don’t you dare say that again,” she said.
