Nashville Council Members Blame ‘European Colonizers’ For ‘Invasion’ Amid Illegal Immigration Crisis

Nashville City Council members denied that the United States is facing an invasion from illegal aliens and instead blamed Europeans for their “invasion” of America in 1492 amid an ongoing battle over the city’s response to illegal immigration.

The comment came in a letter from the Nashville city council’s Immigrant Caucus, which slammed fellow council member David Benton after he spoke alongside Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) as the congressman called for an investigation into Nashville Democratic Mayor Freddie O’Connell, who condemned raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Music City.

The Caucus, which is chaired by council member Terry Vo, accused Benton of pushing “racist propaganda” and turned its ire to “European colonizers.”

“We remind him, and the public, that the only true ‘invasion’ of this land occurred in 1492 with the arrival of European colonizers,” the statement reads as it addresses Benton in an apparent reference to Christopher Columbus. “To weaponize the concept of invasion against immigrant communities is both historically ignorant and morally reprehensible.”

The letter falsely claimed that the illegal aliens captured by ICE “are not criminals,” and even called illegal aliens the “backbone of this city and this nation.”

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Beyond unlawfully entering the United States, which is itself a crime, many of the illegal aliens captured by ICE have been convicted of additional offenses. An exclusive report from The Daily Wire revealed that, of the 196 illegal aliens arrested in Music City since early May, 95 had prior criminal convictions or pending criminal charges, and 31 had allegedly committed a felony by re-entering the United States after previously being deported.

.@SpencerLndqst rips into Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell on @FoxNews over the allegations of him obstructing ICE:

“Is he on the side of the people of Nashville, the American citizens… or is he on the side of drug runners, cartel members, rapists, and sex offenders?”

🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/88YFyNFV4k

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) May 29, 2025

ICE’s raids in Nashville resulted in the capture of rapists, sex offenders, drug peddlers, and members of MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, two vicious gangs that the Trump administration recently designated as foreign terror organizations.

Mayor O’Connell not only condemned the raids, but even doxxed the names of ICE agents involved. The mayor’s office maintains that the doxxing was an accident, but the Department of Homeland Security said there is “zero chance it was a mistake.”