Shootings in Minnesota and in Oregon at the hands of ICE — Immigration and Customs Enforcement — have increased tensions between the federal government and local communities across the country where people were already on edge. Here in Memphis, where ICE has spread fear and unease in the Latino and immigrant communities, the question is not if but when that violence will come to our neighborhoods.
Shortly after President Trump took office, he decided to wield the power of the executive branch and flood cities that typically have Democrat mayors with law enforcement to address a crime problem that had already been trending downward across the country. Initially, much of the worry was about deploying the National Guard in policing but the real danger was and is Trump’s use of ICE.
Since July 2025, ICE has hired 12,000 new personnel under the Big [not so] Beautiful Bill passed by Congress last year. In doing so, ICE increased its workforce by 120 percent. These new agents received a $50,000 bonus upon sign-up and training modules have been compressed or reduced; the actual training has declined in order to process all of these new agents at roughly the same time. ICE has looked for, via patriotic pitches, “tough guys (and gals)” to keep America’s streets free of the “worst of the worst” — four words uttered repeatedly by the President.
Put simply, Congress authorized the creation of an army for Trump to deploy with little or no restraint.
Back on September 15th, Trump announced that his army would be coming to Memphis. This deployment came not at the request of Memphians or Memphis authorities, but at the suggestion of the multi-millionaire Nebraskan and CEO of Union Pacific Railroad, Jim Vena. Vena’s only tenuous connection to our city is that he is a FedEx board member and was upset about railway cargo theft.
Since the creation of “the Memphis Safe Task Force,” 13 agencies and a much more prominent presence from the Tennessee Highway Patrol have been patrolling our streets. Crime has continued its previous trajectory trending downward, but the work of the Task Force has come at a major cost to the immigrant community.
Of the reported 662 immigration-related arrests made by ICE in Memphis between October 1st and December 8, 2025, 580 were made through traffic stops. This isn’t a targeting of violent criminals. It is law enforcement engaging in pretextual traffic stops and looking for a reason for escalation and arrest — like civil immigration violations. Anyone traveling on Summer Avenue in the past few months has seen the state police followed by unmarked SUVs carrying ICE agents and can understand how this Task Force works.
Locally, we have seen an anemic response from leadership. Our mayor decided to hold a victory celebration by touting the 40 percent drop in crime, a four-year goal he’s achieved in two. Reduced crime is good for any city, but traffic stops, harassing people, and profiling does not help a city become safer — rather, it forces the people of Memphis to decide if they’ll go out or stay in.
It leaves us all a little on edge, living in a state of fear in our own city, and if the mayor wants to own the 40 percent drop, then he also owns the terror felt in the Latino community.
Likewise, Mayor Young and our chief of police will have to own the generational effect that collaboration between our police force and ICE will have. It wasn’t so long ago that Rev. Billy Kyles and former Executive Director of Latino Memphis, José Velázquez, held a series of meetings to close the black-brown divide and promote trust between the Latino community and the MPD.
Are undocumented immigrants or those with undocumented immigrants in their household willing to report crimes that they’ve witnessed or been victims of? Given the reports that ICE detains legal residents and U.S. citizens, should any of us voluntarily put ourselves in contact with federal agents or those with whom they collaborate? Any gains that Rev. Kyles and Mr. Velázquez achieved are likely gone.
Here we are with a growing crisis in Minnesota where a woman was killed on January 7th by ICE and two more people were shot by ICE in Portland the following day. Should we wait for a similar fate for Memphis and Memphians?
We can’t and we won’t. We’re not as bold as Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis who publicly called for ICE to “get the fuck out of Minneapolis,” but we don’t think we need 13 federal agencies here. It’s time for Trump’s people to go.
Bryce W. Ashby is an attorney at Donati Law, PLLC. Michael J. LaRosa is an associate professor of history at Rhodes College.