A few weeks ago, the Rev. Daniel Castillo — a United Methodist Church pastor from Maryville — was visiting a family from one of the congregations he serves. They invited him to stay for dinner.

The Knox County jail has held more than 5,000 immigrant detainees since January 2025.

“Sitting in the living room, they invited me to eat with them, and he gave me a simple plate of lentils. It was a humble food, but it was so special. It reminded me of the flavors of my childhood,” said Castillo, who was one of a group of local religious leaders who gathered Wednesday morning in the parking lot in front of Knox County’s Roger D. Wilson Detention Facility, the county’s primary jail. 

“My friend and my brother, sitting across from me, is a good, hard-working man,” Castillo said. “He gets up every day and works. He provides for his family. He’s a husband. He’s a father. He’s a man who loves his children and wants to give them a better future.”

Not long after, the man — a Mexican national — was detained by immigration agents while he was at a local job site. He was placed into immediate deportation proceedings and within days had been sent back to Mexico. He can now talk to his children only long-distance.

“He’s not a violent criminal,” Castillo said. “He was not arrested while committing a robbery. He was not hurting someone. He was not selling drugs. He was not causing trouble in our community. He was detained while he was working. He was still wearing his working clothes.”

Castillo’s was one of several stories of lives disrupted and families torn apart related by speakers Wednesday at the parking-lot news conference, where about two dozen clergy members presented a group letter signed by more than 100 East Tennessee faith leaders.

At Odds With the Sheriff

The letter asks the Sheriff’s Office to cancel its jail-bed contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under which ICE pays the county to house immigrant detainees until they can be transported to federal facilities. The clergy say that more than 5,000 immigration detainees have been held at the county jail since January 2025. 

The letter also calls for ending KCSO’s cooperation with ICE under federal 287(g) agreements, which deputize local officers with some federal immigration-enforcement powers.

The joint letter is signed by leaders from many denominations and faiths, including Catholic Bishop Mark Beckman of the Diocese of Knoxville; Episcopal Bishop Brian Lee Cole of the Diocese of East Tennessee; Rabbi Raina Siroty of Temple Beth El; Rev. Chris Buice of Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church; and Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian and United Church of Christ ministers, among others.

“We ask those who hold the honor and power of elected office to refuse every expansion of ICE enforcement operations in our region,” the Rev. Lee Fox, a minister with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, said at Wednesday’s news conference. “To stop spreading malicious falsehoods about immigrants in our nation, immigrants in our state, immigrants in our county, and instead place their focus on the policies that create true public safety.”

The Rev. Peter Iorio, vicar general of the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville.

However, newly elected Sheriff Brent Gibson is moving in the opposite direction. He has affirmed his intention to keep the county’s current 287(g) agreement — a “Jail Enforcement Model” under which trained KCSO officers can check a detainee’s immigration status and initiate deportation proceedings if they aren’t in the country legally. And he has said he plans to expand to a “Task Force Model,” which would give trained sheriff’s deputies immigration-enforcement powers as part of their regular patrol duties.

Justin Pratt, Gibson’s spokesman, said in an email that deputies will not be going out of their way to look for people to detain solely on the basis of their immigration status or ethnicity.

“The Knox County Sheriff’s Office is not and will not target individuals based on race, ethnicity, nationality, appearance, or where someone may be from,” Pratt said. “That is not the purpose of this program and will not be how we police Knox County. Our participation in the 287(g) Task Force Model is about ensuring that properly trained KCSO deputies have the tools and authority necessary to address situations they encounter while performing legitimate law-enforcement duties.”

But the clergy who spoke on Wednesday said that even without the participation of KCSO, ICE activity in East Tennessee has already caused fear and trauma among local immigrant families — many of whom are of mixed status, sometimes with one or both parents lacking legal authorization, but children who are U.S. citizens.

The Rev. Peter Iorio, vicar general of the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, spoke on behalf of Bishop Beckman. He said, “Our parishes are filled with families from every nation, just as this region has always been. As Catholics, we believe in the dignity of all, the value of life and the primacy of family. And we are committed to building a civilization of love here in East Tennessee, a community where all people and all of God’s creation are lovingly cherished. That is why it is so painful to hear firsthand stories of families being separated, pews sitting empty out of fear, and pathways to citizenship growing less clear by the day.”

The message echoed that of Pope Leo XIV, who has challenged the Trump administration’s aggressive mass deportation efforts.

‘It Is Happening Here’

Pastor Molly Conaway of the nondenominational Crossings faith community in downtown Knoxville said her congregation includes people who interact regularly with members of local immigrant communities, in education or healthcare or social work. She said they report on the fears and disappearances they encounter among the families they serve.

“We cannot continue saying things like, ‘The immigration issues are not happening here like in other cities,’” she said. “It is happening here. It is just harder to see, and we, your local clergy, are asking you to pay attention. … A teacher told me recently that every day, a student was telling her that their dad was taken, their uncle, their older brother, their cousin — it’s too many family members and friends to count at this point.” 

The Rev. RJ Powell of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Maryville.

The Rev. RJ Powell, priest-in-charge at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Maryville, said, “Today, there are thousands right here in East Tennessee who need us to stand with them now. Who are fearful to leave their families, who are fearful to call for help, who are fearful to go to the doctor or even to the grocery store because of ICE.

“Many of them came here because this country promised them safety from violence and hunger and governments that had failed them, and they arrived believing that America welcomes the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. And overwhelmingly a majority of these folks have complied with the ever-changing landscape of our broken immigration system and now are being hunted down when that broken system has pulled the rug out from under them.”

In an interview after the news conference, Powell said the joint letter was just the start of closer interfaith coordination and communication around protecting local immigrant communities. He noted that many of the churches and denominations represented were already engaged in various support activities with their own congregations and working with local advocacy groups like Allies of Knoxville’s Immigrant Neighbors (AKIN).

They are now sharing more of that work and the stories they encounter with each other, to build more of a unified front.

“We need to be more vocal,” he said. “Many of us have been doing that work, but does the public see that? And does the public then feel like they are empowered to also say, ‘Hey, this goes against my values, too, and these are some faith leaders who are stepping up and are doing that work. So maybe I will have the courage to come and join in that work.’”