Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Tuesday that the “Memphis Safe Task Force” is focused on violent crime, and that the coalition of 31 agencies has already arrested “850 violent criminals and known gang members.”
But a look at the task force’s operations on Monday shows that most of the people arrested were not charged with a violent crime, and immigrants are being arrested on administrative — not criminal — warrants, according to a document obtained by MLK50: Justice Through Journalism.
The document, provided by the task force to local public officials, details arrests made on one full day of task force operations, Monday, Oct. 13. That day, 1,561 personnel from 31 agencies were working in Memphis.
The document states that 51 arrests were made on Monday. It does not list traffic stops where there was no arrest. It does not specify which agency made each arrest or whether the data is separated from the regular operations of the Memphis Police Department. One “missing child” was also found that day, according to the document. She was found living with her father in California.
The document also indicates that task force members responded to a shooting that left one man dead and another injured. The person was treated for a gunshot wound and taken into custody pending an investigation.
Concern growing among immigrants
Lee dismissed concerns about how the task force is impacting immigrant communities at the press conference on Tuesday.
“If you’re here illegally and you commit a crime, then obviously ICE is going to be involved in that. But the effort, the goal, the purpose, is to go after crime in the city,” he said. “If they’re not a criminal element, then they shouldn’t be afraid.”
Yet, none of the seven people — who came from Senegal, Guatemala and Mexico — that were arrested for being “unlawfully present in the United States” on Monday were described as having criminal charges. “Unlawful presence” is a civil offense, and not a crime.
Another man was described as an “illegal alien” and charged with theft of a motor vehicle, felony evading and possession of drug paraphernalia, but the document did not detail any immigration-related charges for him. Another part of the document said there were nine administrative arrests during that time period, but MLK50 only found seven noted in the anecdotes.
Tuesday, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris held a news conference in which he described instances of possible racial profiling, saying those anecdotes “have made us uncomfortable.”
“Racial profiling is unconstitutional,” Harris said.
Carlos Ochoa, who spoke at Harris’ news conference on behalf of Vecindarios 901, said volunteers at the community hotline and in their network have spoken to residents reporting changes in immigrant neighborhoods. A few weeks ago, armed federal agents and state agents “swooped into” the park alongside the Marion Hale Community Center, Ochoa said. Normally a hub of activity, the bleachers and park are now empty, Ochoa said.
“We see parents afraid to leave their homes,” Ochoa said. “We see children missing school because safety feels uncertain. We see workers avoiding medical care because survival demands invisibility, families forced from our neighborhoods. We even see US citizens being arrested by ICE.”
At Harris’ press conference, immigration attorney Colton Bane described how one of his clients was expecting his green card to arrive “any day,” but was pulled over on his way home from work. Now, he’s sitting in detention. Others have described having their driver’s licenses taken away by law enforcement and not returned, even when they are allowed to leave the traffic stop, Bane said.
“The only long-lasting effect I’m seeing from this task force are further fractured relationships between our immigrant community and the local law enforcement who will be here after this operation,” Bane said.
Thousands of citations, 320 warrants served
Of the 44 non-immigration arrests on Monday, only 13 were clearly for violent crimes, according to an MLK50 analysis of the data. Five people arrested were described as gang members, but the document did not explain how that was determined.
Thirty of the 44 people arrested had not been charged with violent offenses. Instead, their charges ranged from failure to appear in court for a misdemeanor to identity theft to trespassing and misdemeanor theft of property. Seven of those non-violent charges were drug-related. One arrest could not be clearly identified as a violent or nonviolent charge.
One arrest anecdote in the document described a 17-year-old in Frayser who was “observed standing in front of a business for several minutes.”
“When approached by law enforcement, subject fled on foot,” the document said. The youth was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, criminal trespass, evading and obstructing.
Another anecdote told of a young man arrested for “possession of a controlled substance.” Officials recovered marijuana.
A woman was arrested on a warrant for misdemeanor theft of property: Property worth less than $1,000.
Five people were arrested on gun charges, three for possessing a firearm “during the commission of a dangerous felony,” seemingly referring to drug charges.
Tuesday, Memphis Mayor Paul Young, who stood alongside Lee at the governor’s press conference, said a significant amount of the work underway is the execution of warrants. When the operation began, the city had about 10,000 felony warrants, he said.
Out of the 854 arrests made by the task force as of Monday, 320 appeared to be for outstanding warrants, according to the document. The second highest category of arrests was “administrative,” 168, referring to arrests made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for civil, not criminal, immigration violations.
As of Monday, the task force had also issued 4,160 traffic citations and 59 misdemeanor citations. Details of those interactions and citations were not immediately available.
Katherine Burgess is the government accountability reporter for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Contact her at katherine.burgess@mlk50.com
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