NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A federal contract worth up to $63 million listing a Nashville zip code has raised concerns about the city becoming home to a new immigration enforcement support center, with local officials and advocates vowing to fight it.
Federal contract records show a Donelson zip code as the location for ICE support services. The contract was awarded July 28, 2025, to Koniag Services, Inc., an Alaska-based company that is a subsidiary of an Alaska Native corporation.
The contract originally listed Adams, Tennessee — a rural town of 600 people near the Kentucky border — before being changed to Nashville.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirms it is establishing a Public Safety Coordination Center designed to support ICE's nationwide 287(g) program. The center will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, organized around three 8-hour shifts, and will coordinate support for all 287(g) partnerships across the nation, not just Tennessee.
Those agreements allow ICE and local law enforcement to work together. State law requires county sheriffs to enter these partnerships. More than 100 Tennessee agencies currently partner with ICE.
In a statement to NewsChannel 5, ICE said the center is intended to strengthen coordination between the agency and its state and local law enforcement partners.
“The center will provide 287(g) partners with real-time operational support, case-related guidance, and direct access to ICE resources, improving response times and ensuring law enforcement has the support needed to protect communities and enforce federal immigration law.”
ICE declined to confirm the specific location, citing a "coordinated campaign of violence" against its officers.
Koniag has posted 29 senior-level positions for the operation, requiring varying levels of federal security clearances.
Immigration advocates say the center will spread fear in Nashville's immigrant communities.
"When immigrants are afraid to call the police, we are less safe. When parents are afraid to take their children to school, we are less safe," District 17 Council Member Terry Vo said.
Tennessee Justice for our Neighbors, which has represented nearly 300 unaccompanied minor immigrant children, expressed concern the center could be used to track vulnerable children. The organization represents children who qualify for humanitarian status because they have been abused, abandoned or neglected.
"The government is required by law to protect children living in this country without a guardian. This is to protect them from abuse, exploitation, or being trafficked. Instead, our government is funding a call center that extensively puts a target on their backs," TJFON Executive Director Tessa Lemos Del Pino said.
Nashville city leaders have pledged to oppose the center.
"This call center is not Nashville, and we will make sure that we do everything in our power so that it is not here, ever. Because we have a responsibility to all Nashvillians, whether they were born here or raised here. They are Nashville," District 30 Council Member Sandra Sepulveda said.
The mayor's office says it is still working to get a clear picture of what is actually planned.
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