Lawsuit Challenges Davidson County Sheriff's Immigration Powers

U.S. citizen held twice cites 1963 Metro charter.

The Tennessean: An American citizen held as an illegal immigrant in Davidson County — more than once — may have the strongest legal argument yet against the sheriff's role in a federal deportation program. Daniel Renteria-Villegas, a 19-year-old Portland, Ore.-born man, has been detained twice by the Davidson County Sheriff's Office on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant, in spite of having a valid Tennessee driver's license, passport, birth certificate and Social Security number. Now he's challenging the sheriff's very authority to participate in a federal immigration enforcement program called 287(g). He has filed a lawsuit demanding that Sheriff Daron Hall be banned from participating in the program. The argument: Metro's 1963 charter, which stripped the sheriff's office of most of its law-enforcement powers, prohibits jailers from immigration enforcement. This latest challenge, by attorney Elliott Ozment, may be the biggest threat to one of Hall's hallmark programs. On Feb. 25, a Davidson County Chancery Court judge probably will decide whether to grant a temporary injunction stopping Davidson County from enforcing immigration laws under the 287(g) program. Immigration attorneys will be paying close attention to the results.