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FIRST ON FOX: House GOP investigators looking at the Nashville mayor’s battle with federal immigration officials are setting their sights on the riots in Los Angeles, a key Republican lawmaker told the Trump administration.
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., is helping lead House Republicans’ investigation into Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, which is being facilitated by the House committees on Homeland Security and the Judiciary, respectively.
He delivered an update on that investigation to senior Trump law enforcement officials Thursday, arguing a key fund being used to help illegal immigrants is being promoted using taxpayer dollars despite city officials’ insistence otherwise.
Ogles also revealed House investigators were “closely monitoring” events in Los Angeles, where rioters have engaged in violent standoffs with law enforcement in response to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids there last weekend.
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“Although described as privately funded, the Belonging Fund has been promoted through official city platforms and appears to leverage city infrastructure. Its stated purpose – to provide legal aid, housing, transportation, and other support to individuals arrested or targeted by ICE – raises serious concerns,” Ogles wrote to Trump officials.
“If any federal resources were used directly or indirectly, this could constitute a violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act or federal grant restrictions.”
He also questioned whether funds were used “to harbor or conceal individuals from lawful detention.”
The fund’s website states that “donations to the fund are made possible solely by individual donors and private organizations – no government dollars are included. That means no taxpayer dollars are being used in the administration or distribution of this fund.”
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It comes after ICE agents working with the Tennessee Highway Patrol arrested nearly 200 people the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said were illegal immigrants, many of them criminals with gang affiliations or other sordid pasts.
A DHS news release targeted O’Connell by name over comments he made in early May.
“What’s clear today is that people who do not share our values of safety and community have the authority to cause deep community harm.”
After the arrests, O’Connell signed an executive order aimed at tracking peoples’ interactions with federal immigration authorities, according to WSMV4.
“It’s important for us to get this right, and it’s very frustrating to see a failure in the process,” O’Connell said of ICE’s work in his city.
Ogles argued it amounted to a “deeply troubling pattern of resistance to lawful immigration enforcement,” adding the probe “is not limited to the City of Nashville.”
“In particular, we are closely reviewing recent events in Los Angeles, California, where violent protests allegedly in opposition to immigration enforcement have erupted,” Ogles said.
President Donald Trump ordered the National Guard into Los Angeles to quell the riots over the objections of Democratic city and state officials.
Democrats have accused the Republican administration of a drastic overreach of presidential powers and needless escalation, while GOP allies of Trump argued that it was a necessary answer to the situation.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said it could not confirm receipt of the letter.
Fox News Digital also reached out to DHS, the FBI and the White House for a response to Ogles’ letter. Fox News Digital also reached out to the Nashville and Los Angeles mayors’ offices.
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