President Trump announced an anti-crime task force for Memphis last fall, and the influx of federal agents produced widespread immigration arrests over the following 10 months.
An Institute for Public Service Reporting data analysis found a majority of those arrested had no criminal convictions, and city data showed the vast majority of arrests by the task force — whether for immigration or otherwise — were for nonviolent crimes, with immigration arrests rising sixfold in the first months of the operation.
Immigrant neighborhoods and aid networks were shaken by the campaign: lawyers, activists and community members described paralyzed neighborhoods, hotlines swamped with calls and mutual aid groups ramping up deliveries to families afraid to leave home. "There was a spike of fear and panic," said Mauricio Calvo, president and CEO of Latino Memphis.
Much of the task force's work centered on traffic stops, community organizers said, and organizers set up hotlines and a Facebook channel to alert residents to safer routes after an initial wave of calls overwhelmed operators. Maria Oceja, a co-founder of Vecindarios901, said she warned local officials early that "they're not coming to Memphis for just crime. I'm pretty sure this is going to be an ICE operation." The rollout included a White House official who told assembled law enforcement officers, "You are unleashed."
Federal and local officials defended the effort. Emily Williams, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service, which leads the task force, said immigration enforcement is "only one aspect" of the mission and wrote, "Our primary focus is violent offenders. We arrest anyone who is breaking the law — if you are in the country illegally, you are committing a crime." A White House spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, wrote that "President Trump's crime task forces in Washington D.C. and Memphis have yielded tremendous results for local communities," while listing impacts without providing evidence.
The task force has not provided a detailed arrest breakdown, and a city dashboard that briefly listed immigration arrests later removed those numbers, organizers said. Tennessee National Guard troops remain visible in grocery store parking lots and tourist areas, alongside convoys of unmarked SUVs, and the task force does not have a set end date.
Ten months into the deployment, community leaders said arrests have slowed and some residents are trying to return to normal, but mutual aid demand remains high. Volunteers continue delivering groceries and running makeshift pantries, and organizers said President Trump has said he wants to replicate the model elsewhere, particularly "in Republican-led states where he has more political buy-in."