Last year, during the wildly unpredictable lead-up to the November presidential election, we thought it would be relevant to publish a series of five stories, focused on immigrants among us, in this paper. Our assumption? It would be helpful to explain the arrival (and in all cases, thriving) stories of five individuals who live here but were born abroad, in Mexico, Honduras, Nepal, Russia, and Venezuela. We hoped to engender good-will and understanding toward our friends in Memphis’ wide, diverse immigrant community. And of course, with a Harris victory in November, the socio/political climate for immigrants would only improve, here and nationally.
Boy, were we wrong!
A year or so ago, we never imagined that our community — the city of Memphis — would be home to an unconstitutional, costly, and pointless National Guard deployment. The Guard deployment, however, is the least of our worries.
A surge of 13 federal agencies came at the request of Governor Bill Lee, and without a request by any elected official in Memphis. Those federal agencies have teamed up with the Memphis Police Department (MPD), the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
While they have been useful in addressing a backlog in unexecuted arrest warrants, these law enforcement agencies have used pretextual stops to inflict a level of harm that will undermine the community for years to come.
For the past 30 years, the MPD and the sheriff’s office, through Republican and Democratic administrations, have been telling the Latino community that they do not enforce immigrations laws. Starting in the early and mid-’90s, the Latino community was reluctant to call the police, even when they became victims of violent crimes due to fear of being reported to immigration. As a result, Latino workers and families were often the targets of crimes and gangs. Groups like Latino Memphis worked tirelessly with local law enforcement agencies to build trust so that victims felt safe calling the police. That work brought down the crime rate against the Latino community, which made us all safer.
In a matter of a month, however, that progress has been tossed aside. It disappeared the moment MPD and the mayor of Memphis, Paul Young, allowed ICE to ride in an MPD patrol car. Although the city claims that ICE is only assisting in hunting down violent criminals, it’s clear from talking to members of the community that the bond of trust has now been broken.
Worse yet, this surge and collaboration with ICE is destroying a once thriving and vibrant part of the Memphis community. Back in 2017, a national study showed that 25 percent of all Hispanic children have at least one undocumented parent. That number is significantly higher in less established immigrant communities like Memphis. As a result, families are living in deeper and darker shadows than they were before “the surge.”
Children are not going to school out of fear. Even when they are attending school, parents are not participating in their children’s activities in the same numbers. For example, at a recent high school soccer game against Memphis East, a team composed of nearly all Latina student-athletes only had one family in the stands. It’s safe to say that this was not because of a lack of parent interest and that we will be dealing with the yet untold ramifications of this trauma on a generation of young Memphians for years to come.
We don’t envy the position in which Mayor Young finds himself. We understand that he truly believes that by maintaining a seat at the table, he is mitigating the worst excesses of Trump’s thugs. Maybe he is right. Or maybe he is deluding himself.
Thomas Jefferson wrote, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” ICE now has a foothold in the city and with MPD.
Mayor Young is a gifted orator who became the mayor of our city through a tireless campaign that saw someone with very little name recognition beat established and respected politicians. He has deep connections with business leaders who clearly have the ear of the president and the governor.
We’re not calling for performative press conferences or banging on a podium in front of the media. Mayor Young should exercise his extensive gifts and connections to advocate for those in our community who are largely powerless. We’re asking for someone to educate and rally a community under siege. We need a leader to organize our citizens, including those with connections to the administration, to take back their city from an invasion of Trump’s army.
Indeed, San Francisco has managed to fend off such an invasion by leveraging connections with the White House under leadership from Mayor Daniel Lurie.
We all suffer when the bullies take over (and they have); our friends in the immigrant community who want to work, take care of their families, send their kids to school, and live here in peace deserve our special attention during this unprecedented period — a fast, national descent into dictatorship.
Bryce W. Ashby is an attorney at Donati Law, PLLC. Michael J. LaRosa is an associate professor of history at Rhodes College.
