A Sunday vigil in Mason, Tennessee, will highlight “lives lost in ICE detention centers,” alongside dozens of others across the country as part of Disappeared in America Day of Action.
Mason was selected because the Board of Aldermen there approved a contract in August with CoreCivic, a private prison company that operates throughout Tennessee, and ICE for use of the then-shuttered West Tennessee Detention Facility.
The Community Vigil for Justice and Due Process will be held Sunday from 4 p.m.-5:30 p.m. at Cedar Grove Missionary Baptist Church (122 Washington Ave., Mason, TN) It will be hosted by ACLU-TN, West Tennessee For The People, and partner organizations, faith leaders, and community members.
ACLU-TN contends the contract for the ICE facility violated the terms of the city of Mason’s charter. The group said the deal will generate $30 million in profit for CoreCivic.
On Thursday, ACLU-TN joined the lawsuit by several Memphis lawmakers that challenges Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s constitutional right to deploy the Tennessee National Guard to Memphis. The group, along with several others, filed a brief with the court supporting the lawmakers.
ACLU-TN said the move “echoes a troubling historical pattern of using military force to intimidate predominantly Black Memphis communities, including a 1938 deployment that targeted Black voters.”
“The Tennessee Constitution was written to prevent exactly this kind of executive overreach,” said Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, ACLU-TN senior staff attorney. “Our founders understood that unchecked military and police power is incompatible with liberty and democracy.”
Partner organizations that signed onto the amicus brief are: Advocates for Immigrant Rights, American Muslim Advisory Council, The Equity Alliance, Just City, Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope (MICAH), Memphis For All, OUTMemphis, Stand For Children Tennessee, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), the Transformative Justice Initiative of the University of Memphis School of Law, and the Free The 901 Campaign.