(18 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nashville, Tennessee – 17 July 2025
1. Wide of State Rep. Justin Jones, (D)-Nashville, talking to airport officials, UPSOUND (English) State Rep. Justin Jones: "Everything for legal purposes to know, because I’ve never had been racially profiled before."
Official: "You haven’t been racially profiled."
Jones: "So I just want to – I want understand why we’re being racially profiled because we were allowed to come in and this gentleman says you’re not welcome here today."
2. SOUNDBITE (English) State Rep. Justin Jones, (D) Tennessee state House:
"The Tennessee Highway Patrol and Department of Homeland Security of our state, he said ask the federal government. This is the only opportunity we have to question the federal government. And she’s in our district, in our home, this district overwhelmingly it’s diverse and multi-racial."
++WHITE FLASH++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) State Rep. Justin Jones, (D) Tennessee state House:
"Every other event we’ve had here in the airport, we’ve been allowed as representatives. This is the first time I’ve been told as a house representative that I’m not allowed to attend an event from the administration. We were here with Secretary Buttigieg. We were for every event they’ve had at the airport. This is first time that we’re told we’re not welcome here. In fact, you saw they let us in, but somebody from Secretary (Kristi) Noem’s staff came over and said we don’t want him here specifically."
++WHITE FLASH++
4. SOUNDBITE (English) State Rep. Justin Jones, (D) Tennessee state House:
"I’m here simply to support veterans and also because I want to get answers from my constituents who’ve been harassed and who’ve been brutalized by ICE here in Nashville. I just want to know from the secretary where are the people in my district? I represent the 52nd House District, which this airport sits in. It’s the most diverse district in the state of Tennessee. Many of my constituents were impacted by the ICE raids. I simply wanted to just hear the Secretary’s support of veterans, and also I’ll get questions as to what happened to my constituents who were taken by ICE in the beginning of May. 196 ICE arrests, the majority of whom never committed a crime in the city of Nashville, never been charged with a crime, yet were taken. And many of them, we don’t know what happened with them."
++WHITE FLASH++
5. SOUNDBITE (English) State Rep. Justin Jones, (D) Tennessee state House:
"So I’m going to leave willingly, because this is not on the police or the airport staff, this is on Secretary Noem, who refuses to answer questions, who’s scared to talk to lawmakers, and who’s hiding behind secrecy because she knows what she’s doing is on the wrong side of history."
6. Wide of Jones leaving airport, UPSOUND (English) State Rep. Justin Jones: "I understand that it wasn’t you. Thank you."
STORYLINE:
Tennessee state Representative Justin Jones was removed from the news conference of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Thursday before she arrived.
Jones, a Democrat, obtained national recognition in 2023 as one of the “Tennessee Three” when his Republican colleagues expelled him for a gun control protest on the chamber floor.
He was quickly reappointed to his district, which includes the Nashville International Airport, where Noem came to speak about new security lanes to make it easier for military members to travel.
Jones told reporters he was allowed into the secure area where the news conference would be held after a security check.
The event was by invitation only and Jones was not invited, according to DHS.
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