Did the TN Highway Patrol ‘hunt’ immigrants?

📹 TN Highway Patrol ‘Hunts’ Immigrants

In a partnership between multiple local and national news sources, more than 50 hours of footage from last May’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement dragnet in Nashville have been analyzed. On today’s podcast, Nashville Banner reporter Stephen Elliott talks to us about what the video footage and records reveal, from troopers using racial slurs to ICE falsifying the number of criminals arrested. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

• Context: In early May 2025, ICE partnered with the Tennessee Highway Patrol to make 600+ stops in immigrant-dense neighborhoods, leading to more than 150 Nashville immigrants being arrested. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]
• More details: The video footage shows the Tennessee Highway Patrol marking people they detained with Sharpies as teams competed for the most arrests. Law enforcement is heard calling the arrests “huntin’ time.” [Nashville Banner]
• Detention conditions: Nashville immigrants who were arrested describe poor conditions in detention facilities. A grandfather who was detained and deported said, “Now detention centers are pure death for people.” Another was told he didn’t deserve food or water. [Nashville Banner]
• Reverberations today: While ICE has retracted a statement that they were building a detention facility in Lebanon, hundreds of people spoke out against ICE at a Wilson County meeting on Tuesday. [Tennessee Lookout]

🌙 Ramadan Mubarak!

Ramadan this year runs from Feb. 17 through March 19. Here are several restaurants celebrating with extended hours serving iftar meals for folks breaking their Ramadan fast, from a nightly buffet at Jerusalem Reebar Restaurant to stews and grilled meats at Edessa. [Nashville Scene]

• Lunar New Year celebrations continue as well, with events at Centennial Park and Father Ryan this weekend. [📰 City Cast Nashville]

🏀 Anchor Up

Vanderbilt University athletic director and vice chancellor Candice Storey Lee, the first Black woman to hold the position in the SEC, has helped the Commodores dominate in all four major college sports. In an interview, Lee discusses the hardest decisions she’s made, and how the women’s basketball team went from the bottom five to one of the top programs in the country. [Nashville Scene]

🍽️ Reviving Dalts

While many were devastated by the news of Dalts American Grill closing after 46 years of service, Strategic Hospitality and Andrew Sohr have acquired the restaurant, and hope to revive it with an updated menu that retains its nostalgia. “We want every walk of life, people celebrating the great work that they do, sitting next to each other and sharing a meal,” said Strategic Hospitality co-owner Max Goldberg. Dalts will reopen in early 2027. [🔐 Nashville Business Journal]

Meet Luna! This three-year-old kitty loves wrestling with her cat sibling Callisto, and cuddling her humans. She’s skittish and shy, and has a secret hidey-hole in the couch. I wish I had a hidey-hole, too!

Want to share your pet in the newsletter? Email me pictures!