Karina Fernandez, a Metro Nashville Police Department crisis counseling supervisor, said victims of crime have been reluctant to step forward since mass immigration sweeps in the city in May. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

Counselors within the Metro Nashville Police Department’s Family Safety Center routinely reach out to crime victims to offer free counseling and support to navigate the criminal justice system.

But soon after mass immigration enforcement sweeps in Nashville during May, the department’s five bilingual counselors witnessed a drastic, and alarming, shift.

In April, just before the Tennessee Highway Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, jointly conducted immigration sweeps, 699 crime victims sought the counselors’ help

By July, the number had

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