The National Immigration Forum’s annual Leading the Way convention, held from September 29-30, 2025 in Nashville (TN), highlighted the voices of leading experts, law enforcement officers, and faith leaders to discuss pragmatic solutions for all Americans. The event focused on the impacts of federal immigration enforcement, and expert opinion on developing immigration topics. Notably, LEITF member Sheriff Clarence Birkhead of Durham County, North Carolina and guest speaker Commander Carlos Lara of the Metro Nashville Police Department made remarks on how federal immigration enforcement affect their communities. 

Federal law enforcement and community safety 

Dedicating his life to law enforcement and community safety since 1984, Sheriff Birkhead understands the importance of community trust. However, local law enforcement’s commitment to community trust and safety is impacted by federal enforcement as well. “The pressure is real, that they [federal government] are trying to force us to further cooperate,” Sheriff Birkhead stated. “The law has been on the books for many years where we cooperate with all of our federal partners…so it is not that we do not cooperate, it is just that, and I speak for myself, I am not going to do the job of customs and border patrol, I am not going to do the ICE raids and participate in that and terrorize my community.”  

In larger cities with a multitude of different cultures, immigrant communities can face violence and fear. “We have a lot of our immigrant communities become the targets of a lot of the crime…their culture coming from another country, they don’t look at police the way we do here, they look at the police as enemies rather than friends,” said Commander Carlos Lara. 

One of the ways local law enforcement officers can try to gain trust in communities is by increasing their presence at events they were invited to in order to show support to different groups that might tend to fear them. “We started to look at all the different events they would have, and we would show up…. let them know that we care and we are not their enemies.”  Commander Lara said. 

Federal presence relationship with local enforcement  

ICE agents are taking up untraditional methods of law enforcement including wearing masks and refusing to identify themselves, while also claiming to be law enforcement. Detaining community members leaves a mark on local law enforcement as well.  “It’s a struggle between delivering good public safety initiatives and building trust in the community, while we have a climate that is pushing further and further apart and dividing us on this issue of immigration,” Birkhead said. “I think what is happening at the federal level is deteriorating public safety and our ability to keep our community safe.”  

Sheriff Birkhead emphasized that local law enforcement faces difficulty focusing on preventing crime when there is pressure to aid immigration enforcement. “We focus on crime, violent criminals … we go after those individuals that are making our communities unsafe. Newsflash here: they are not immigrants, and if they were immigrants it wouldn’t matter, because every Sheriff in North Carolina wants to keep their community safe,” he said. “The focus has become so blurred that we are doing immigration on one hand and we’re doing law enforcement and keeping the community safe on the other hand, and I have been matter of fact that we are just not going to do that, unless the law changes, which the law right now says we are able to do that.”  

Even though North Carolina passed House Bill 318 requiring Sheriffs to work more closely with ICE, Sheriff Birkhead reassured the audience that his department does not participate in ICE raids.  

Commander Lara weighed in on local law enforcement’s role in community safety: “It is not our job to pick a side; I don’t care if you are for immigration or against immigration. My job as law enforcement is to enforce the laws that we have. I am not a federal agent. I am not going to enforce federal law. Our job is to protect people.” 

Federal enforcement impacts local trust 

Sheriff Birkhead noted that community members who see masked individuals detaining community members have a harder time looking to local enforcement for safety as well. “It has created a significant amount of distrust in law enforcement as a whole. When these individuals are seen in our communities, the first thing that they assume is that it is us, local law enforcement … and then they call local law enforcement and ask ‘Is this you?’ and the answer is always ‘Who are you referring to?’ and we ask that question because there is no communication between local law enforcement and ICE.”  

Immigrant communities sometimes start to refrain from contacting the police out of fear that even local law enforcement would deport them. 

“A lot of these new policies are putting fear in people, so immigrants are going ‘we’re not going to call the police’,” Commander Lara said. “That right there is one of the hardest things because our crime, thank God, here in Nashville, is statistically going down, but we don’t know how many people are not calling the police when they are victims of crimes, because they are afraid to call us.” 

Stepping forward in leadership 

Members of the LEITF also met privately in Nashville for deeper conversations around the need for community safety, which requires trust in law enforcement. Leaders raised concerns about current immigration enforcement dynamics and discussed strategies and potential solutions. Building trust in immigrant communities remains important during times when many community members feel that trust has been broken. As the LEITF continues its mission, leaders such as Sheriff Birkhead set great examples for how strong advocacy and a focus on public safety can bring communities together moving forward. 

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The LEITF would like to thank Tanner Smith, Fall Intern, for his contribution to this blog post.