Setting Up the Local Deportation Regime

This chapter examines Nashville’s unfolding state and local anti-immigrant politics, explaining its emergence as a local immigration enforcement regime. I center the chapter around three policy areas that were sites of political contestation: unauthorized immigrants’ assess to driver’s licenses, Davidson County’s participation in the 287(g) immigration enforcement program, and attempts to pass an “English Only” ordinance to make English the Nashville government’s official language. At their core, these local contestations are about political membership and defining Latinos’ place in the city. Changes to the state driver’s license laws ensured that more immigrants would end up in criminal custody, and the 287(g) program ensured that once they got there, they would be identified for removal. Together, these political choices form the foundation of a local deportation regime that- with the help of the police department, disadvantage Nashville’s Latino immigrant residents.