La Vergne Police chief urges community to use emergency services despite fears of immigration enforcement

LA VERGNE, Tenn. (WSMV) - La Vergne Police Chief Christopher Moews says residents shouldn’t be afraid to call emergency services for help even if they’re in the country illegally.

Moews held a town hall Wednesday night to address concerns about immigration policy and enforcement in the city. It comes after almost 200 people were arrested in a joint operation between the Tennessee Highway Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this month.

“I know that there are communities in La Vergne that are losing trust in law enforcement in this country right now, and it’s going to make our job very difficult,” Moews said.

The La Vergne Police Department says it was not involved in any of the recent ICE operations in the city and didn’t even know they’d be happening until they started.

“That’s problematic because I believe it’s an officer safety issue,” Moews said. “If you have people that are in unmarked vehicles jumping out that are in generic police vests and conducting law enforcement operations, we obviously know they’re not ours, and we don’t know who they are. We don’t know if they’re impersonating an officer or anything of that nature. So for officer safety reasons, they should be notifying us, but they don’t have to. It’s proper protocol, but not required.”

Moews also addressed online rumors that his department was working with ICE during their operations, specifically calling out a photo that circulated online of a La Vergne Police squad car stopped near an ICE and THP traffic stop. He says the officer in the photo was simply checking on the trooper to make sure he was safe and drove away when he got a thumbs up from the officer.

“He never got out of his vehicle, he never made contact with anybody, but his vehicle was there and it was videoed or photographed for that moment. Then the rumors went out that we were working with ICE. We were not,” Moews said.

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Local law enforcement is required by law to assist in ICE operations if they’re asked to, but Moews says he hasn’t received any such request from the Department of Homeland Security.

Despite the fact that local police were not involved in ICE operations earlier this month, Moews says they’ve been feeling the effects. In fact, Moews says he had plans to hold an immigration policy town hall even before the most recent ICE arrests due to an incident that ended in the death of a child.

He says a six-month-old baby in La Vergne died after they were found unresponsive and their caretaker waited to call 911. Moews believes that the delay was because the caretaker was afraid to call emergency services due to his immigration status.

“Anybody in this community, regardless of your legal status, is entitled to emergency services. That’s the law,” Moews told community members at the town hall. “Do not be afraid to call the police department due to your legal status.”

Moews says local police cannot deport people, but if they find out that someone is undocumented, they are required to report them to ICE.

“If at some point in time during an investigation, we find out that someone is here illegally, we, by law, have to notify ICE,” Moews said. “If that does not come up during the course of the investigation, then we have no knowledge of someone’s immigration status and then we’re not bound by law.”

Tennessee law prohibits local law enforcement leaders from implementing “sanctuary” policies that would prevent officers from asking about someone’s legal status. Moews says if he did try to create such a policy, he could be charged with a felony.

“As a 31-year veteran of law enforcement, I do not want to end my career as a convicted felon,” he said.

He added that he is committed to following the law and has not told his officers not to ask people about their immigration status. When asked about how officers are trained to handle situations with undocumented residents, Moews said he’s still working that out.

“The training is under development right now because obviously this is a recent issue that is at the forefront. We are developing that because we want to make sure that the training is appropriate and that our officers are acting in accordance with the law and prudently every day,” Moews said.

He also told concerned community members that the question of immigration status does not always come up in police interactions or investigations, and that officers are focused only on community safety, not immigration enforcement.

“We don’t automatically check immigration status on every interaction, we don’t,” Moews said. “We’re very busy. We’re going from call to call often and things of that nature. If it’s not germane to the investigation it simply isn’t done.”