In April, Knox News and Compass co-published a report that looked at the county’s 287(g) program, which empowers local law enforcement agencies to initiate immigration proceedings. It was also the latest example of shifting responses and explanations from both the Sheriff’s Office and the county Law Department about the legal underpinnings of the program. if they’re not following all of the legal provisions precisely, what other violations are they making?” “It makes me wonder whether they are even interested in following all of the laws and procedures of this program. “It makes me wonder what else they’re not following properly,” she said. The oversight is the latest example in a worrying trend of the Sheriff’s Office not following procedure, said Meghan Conley, a University of Tennessee professor and critic of the county’s 287(g) program who won a public records lawsuit against the department last year. “It was pretty clear,” Nichols said of the state law. Nichols freely acknowledged that the county had not even been aware of the requirements of the 2018 law until it was brought to officials’ attention by Knox News and Compass. In an email exchange, Buuck repeatedly evaded the question of whether the notification should have been sent three years ago, when the state law passed, rather than in April 2021. In an interview, Nichols said there may have been miscommunication between him and the Law Department over who was going to send the formal notifications.

And it had still not been sent in April at the time that the county Law Department was assuring commissioners that it had.Ĭopies of the notifications obtained through a records request show that they were actually sent to the state on Aptwo days after the Commission work session. It was not sent in 2019 when current Sheriff Tom Spangler renewed it, or in 2020 when Spangler renewed it again. The notification of state officials required by the 2018 statute had not been sent in 2018 when the law was passed, even though Knox County had entered into its agreement in 2017 under former Sheriff Jimmy “J.J.” Jones.

In fact, both Buuck and Jernigan-Johnson were wrong. “Randy Nichols, the former attorney general who now works in the Sheriff's Office, has told me that yes, he has submitted that documentation,” Buuck told commissioners during their April work session.Ī memo about the 287(g) program sent to commissioners three days earlier by Jessica Jernigan-Johnson, a deputy law director in Buuck’s office, also noted the state notification requirement and said, “This has been accomplished.” Immigrations and Customs Enforcement was completely legal.Ĭounty officials did not seem familiar with state laws about entering into federal agreements.Īmong the assurances he gave them was that notification had been sent to the governor and Legislature of the county’s participation in the federal program, as required by a 2018 state law. On April 19, when Knox County Commission held its first and only formal discussion of the immigration enforcement program known as 287(g), Law Director David Buuck told commissioners that everything about the county’s agreement with U.S. It is a follow-up to a report the two outlets published in April examining the legal underpinnings of the 287(g) immigration enforcement agreement between the federal government and the Knox County Sheriff’s Office. This is a joint report of Compass and the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Tyler whetstone knoxville news sentinel