Some rideshare drivers are avoiding Nashville International Airport after a video appearing to show two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detaining a driver outside the terminal began circulating online in the early morning hours of Oct. 22.
"The drivers are incredibly pissed," Tennessee Drivers Union co-president Joseph Hill said. "They see it as an attempt to scare them and make them back down, but I've seen nothing but bravery from the drivers who feel all the more empowered in their fight."
Hill's organization has led rideshare driver protests against low wages and poor working conditions at the Nashville airport, but following the reported arrest, he said a number of drivers decided on their own to boycott BNA rides for the day.
"In the middle of the night, 4 o'clock in the morning, a driver was detained while making a drop off at the arrivals area of BNA, and he was detained by ICE," Hill said.
According to immigrant advocacy group Music City Migra Watch, the man, a Venezuelan national who works as a Lyft driver and barber in Nashville, was making a Lyft stop at BNA around 4:40 a.m. when he was detained.
The organization said a passenger reported the incident and that the vehicle was later taken to an ICE field office. The man has a pending asylum case, said Music City Migra Watch.
First, he saw the video online from Spanish-language outlet Nashville Noticias and then calls and messages flooded in from drivers who saw the detainment and those who feared the arrest wouldn't be the last.
ICE officials did not respond to The Tennessean's request for confirmation.
Questions grow over BNA's use of Flock Safety cameras
The rideshare driver panic comes as Nashville airport officials confirm BNA's use of Flock Safety cameras, a nationwide system of automated license plate readers and surveillance cameras. Thousands of law enforcement agencies across the U.S. contract with Flock to gain access to its system
Flock stated on its website that ICE does not have "direct access to Flock cameras, systems, or data, unless the agencies that control their data expressly and deliberately allow it."
An MNAA spokesperson said the airport does not search the database on behalf of ICE, but airport cameras have been utilized for immigration-related searches.
"The MNAA Department of Public Safety does not conduct specific immigration, customs enforcement (ICE) searches on their behalf; rather, the standard database is simply accessible to organizations with FLOCK system access," MNAA said in a statement. "These agencies throughout the country are conducting searches with key terms such as 'immigration' or 'immigration-related activity,' and all external agency searches are recorded in our MNAA audit log. Please contact the respective agencies for greater details."
This is a developing story and will be updated as more details are made public.
Hadley Hitson covers business news for The Tennessean. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work,subscribe to The Tennessean.
Diana Leyva covers trending news and service journalism for The Tennessean. Contact her at Dleyva@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville rideshare drivers avoid BNA following reported ICE arrest
