Image Credit: tn.gov & Canva
The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
Immigration enforcement efforts continue to ramp up across the country under the direction and encouragement of the Trump Administration and Tennessee is no exception.
Ryan Hubbard, a former Homeland Security special agent, has been appointed to the position of Chief Immigration Enforcement Officer (CIEO) for Tennessee’s new Centralized Immigration Enforcement Division.
Photo Credit: tn.gov
The Centralized Immigration Enforcement Division was established as part of an immigration initiative passed by Tennessee state lawmakers during the state’s special legislative session on Education, Disaster Relief and Illegal Immigration back in January.
Besides establishing the new Centralized Immigration Enforcement Division within the Department of Safety and Homeland Security in Tennessee, the omnibus immigration bill also:
- Established a grant program to promote the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
- Placed felony-level consequences on elected officials who adopt sanctuary city policies and requires removal of an elected official upon conviction.
- Required the Department of Safety to issue lawful permanent residents temporary driver’s licenses instead of standard ones for the purposes of aiding in voter eligibility determination.
Governor Bill Lee (R-TN) appointed Hubbard to the new division position in April of this year.
As CIEO, Hubbard is charged with “identifying and addressing the presence of individuals in Tennessee who are subject to final orders of removal or who are violent criminal offenders in the country unlawfully” and working with local governments, law enforcement and state agencies to “collect data, intelligence, and legal tools” that can identify illegal immigrants in Tennessee.
Prior to holding this new position, Hubbard worked in federal immigration law enforcement for 28 years. He retired in February 2025 from his work as a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Nashville.
Hubbard also worked as a U.S. Border Patrol Agent in Casa Grande, Arizona, patrolling the United States-Mexico border. He was then promoted to Special Agent with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in Memphis, where he “conducted complex criminal investigations into violations of federal immigration law, including immigration benefit fraud, identity theft, alien smuggling, and sex trafficking.”
When the INS merged with the U.S. Customs Service in 2003 to officially form U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Hubbard became an inaugural member of the new agency.
He was transferred to Nashville in 2009 where he began a 10-year assignment as a task force officer with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, bringing “immigration expertise to international terrorism investigations.”
About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
