Community advocates are demanding that Memphis Mayor Paul Young end the city’s collaboration with the Memphis Safe Task Force and acknowledge its impact on the community.
Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope (MICAH) sent a follow-up letter to Young in the wake of his 2026 State of the City Address earlier this week. Organizers said Young failed to address previous demands as outlined in a February 2nd letter to him.
“We sent a letter, held a press conference, and waited a week for your response,” the February 12th letter said. “We repeatedly attempted to be heard through established channels. But you did not respond to our requests.”
Prior to the group’s follow-up letter, MICAH requested that Young dismantle the Memphis Safe Task Force and urge Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner to end the county’s agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE.)
The city and county’s involvement with both groups has been heavily criticized. In the group’s previous letter, MICAH said these operations are “terrorizing and deporting immigrants based on arbitrary, politically-driven quotas, and hate-filled rhetoric, which has led to the targeting, kidnapping, and abuse of our neighbors.”
“The tactics being used are infringing upon the civil rights of all Memphians, particularly Black and Brown working-class people, who have been subject to racial profiling and an exorbitant number of pretextual traffic stops, resulting in more than 68,000 unwarranted stops, searches, and arrests,” MICAH’s previous letter said. “This is not new, but rather an exacerbated version of what has been our lived experience under the Memphis Police Department and as documented in the U.S. Department of Justice Practice and Patterns Findings Report.”
MICAH requested the end to pretextual traffic stops and searches without warrants and increased investments in public transportation, affordable housing, livable-wage jobs, and community opportunities
“At the State of the City, you highlighted challenges related to the city’s population density,” MICAH said. “Our city cannot grow as families are torn apart by the [Un]Safe Task Force on their way to work or school. Nor will it increase as the city does closed-door, backroom deals that welcome facilities threatening our air, water, and health. Growth won’t occur if public servants, like our public library workers, are left without the protection of collective bargaining.
The organization reiterated its commitment towards advancing efforts for young people who were both present at the address and “those forced to hide at home.”