State troopers and federal agents decide Memphis residents’ fates during traffic stops

In the heart of Berclair on the evening of Nov. 18, a traffic stop for a broken license plate light left two young children without their family. 

Tennessee Highway Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations officers stopped a banged-up black hatchback at an intersection in Berclair around 8:15 p.m. After the driver and passenger were asked for their identification, the stop became an immigration status check. It was just a matter of minutes before the men were handcuffed in the state trooper’s vehicle under HSI custody.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” a neighbor yelled. She was one of several community members who had gathered on the lawn of a nearby church to watch and document the scene.

As officers prepared to take the men away, a friend of theirs pulled up to the scene in a car with two young children in the back seat. Those children were the detained driver’s niece and nephew, who had been under their uncle’s care since their parents had been recently detained and deported, community members said.

MLK50 observed the Memphis Safe Task Force’s activity on the evenings of Nov. 18 and 20 in the mostly-immigrant neighborhoods surrounding the Summer Avenue corridor, which have become traffic stop hotspots. These stops were usually initiated by state troopers for minor traffic violations and assisted by federal agents. Officers exercised broad discretion to decide the fate of those they pulled over: give them a verbal warning, write a citation or make an arrest.

Nov. 18

6:26 p.m. — Jackson Avenue and North Hollywood Street

A Tennessee Highway Patrol vehicle and HSI agents driving two unmarked vehicles pulled over a black pickup truck towing a flatbed trailer of wood and scrap metal. Two men were in the truck. The driver was a U.S. citizen but did not have a driver’s license. The passenger was in the country on a visa.

A handful of family members, including the driver’s wife, arrived on the scene to provide documentation to the five agents questioning the men. The driver’s wife clutched a red folder full of paperwork prepared by her attorney, which proved her husband’s citizenship. 

While observing the traffic stop, one community member noted the identity of one of the federal immigration officers, a Hispanic woman. “It’s disappointing to see this,” said the witness, who was also a Hispanic woman. “She’s speaking perfect Spanish to them, and she’s an agent.”

The stop began because the pickup truck had a broken headlight. Ultimately, neither man was detained, and both were allowed to leave the scene. A family member with a driver’s license took over driving the truck, while the driver rode away with his wife. The passenger remained in the truck.

“Next time, you got to enter the country legally,” one agent told the passenger while the other translated his words into Spanish. The agents told the men it was time to update their documents, and the officers bumped fists with one another as they returned to their vehicles. 

“Beast mode,” one of the HSI agents said.

7:55 p.m. — La Michoacana on Summer Avenue

Several small businesses have seen a decline in customers in neighborhoods north of Summer Avenue during the task force’s presence, a local restaurant manager told MLK50. He mentioned La Michoacana on Summer Avenue, a popular spot known for its array of Mexican sweets, fresh fruit, ice cream and snacks. 

“I’m always outside watching what’s going on,” said the manager, whose restaurant is less than two miles from La Michoacana.

Directly across the street from the ice cream shop, at least four Memphis Police Department vehicles were parked facing the road in a dark, empty lot. The marked vehicles were several feet away from the street beneath the shadow of an overhanging tree. Around 8:11 p.m., they filed in line, drove onto Summer Avenue and sped onto nearby Sam Cooper Boulevard.

8:17 p.m. — Macon Road and North Graham Street

Neighbors gathered along Macon Road to see a line of seven marked and unmarked law enforcement vehicles with their blue emergency lights flashing. Officers had pulled over a Honda CR-V for a broken license plate light at the intersection of Macon Road and North Graham Street. 

As the scene unfolded, a small crowd quickly formed on the lawn of St. Stephen’s Methodist Church, right next to the traffic stop. Officers arrested the two men on allegations of living here undocumented, loaded them into cars and drove them away, leaving the vehicle with its blinkers on in the turn lane. 

“Is this freedom?” one woman asked the officers. “Is this what you trained for?” The officers — a mixture of state troopers and HSI agents — smirked and laughed as her questions went unanswered. 

A few minutes after the men were taken, a friend of the driver arrived, flipped his hazard lights on and jumped out of his car. He was told he could help move the vehicle off the street and into a nearby parking lot, but the friend was worried about the two kids in his backseat. He had been watching them while their uncle, the detained driver, was out running errands.

“What’s going to happen to the children?” the friend asked. He told community members that the driver was the only family the kids had left in the country since their parents were recently deported.

The agents offered no response and quickly cleared the scene.

Community members watched quietly, solemnly as the friend walked the kids, a girl and a boy, to their uncle’s abandoned car. The girl carried a backpack and clung to her tablet while she and her brother held hands. Vecindarios 901 volunteers on site offered the hotline’s number to access family support.

A family who lives near the intersection watched from the church lawn and said that for them, this arrest exemplifies their neighbors’ nightmares, keeping them inside and making the neighborhood feel “empty.”

“Nobody wants to be out here anymore,” one neighbor said. “It makes me feel like we can’t trust the police or any government (official).” These Berclair residents, who were Hispanic, said they live in fear of being racially profiled at any moment. 

“I was born here. This is breaking my heart,” one neighbor said. Her voice broke as tears welled in her eyes. “I’m driving my neighbors’ kids (to school) because their parents are scared.” 

9:44 p.m. – Summer Avenue and Old Summer Road 

A state trooper pulled over a white couple driving a white coupe with a broken headlight. The traffic stop was quick and uneventful. No officers from other agencies arrived at the scene. The trooper checked the woman’s driver’s license and gave it back to her, along with a verbal warning. 

“I’m happy (the task force) is here,” the woman said after the traffic stop was finished. “They’re doing a good job.”

10:05 p.m. — Summer Avenue and North Holmes Street

A MAPCO gas station at Summer Avenue and North Holmes Street became the scene of a traffic stop and a drug search. 

Two Black men, who appeared to be in their 20s or 30s, leaned against the hood of a Tennessee Highway Patrol vehicle while agents poked and prodded around inside their car. The men were driving a gray Infiniti sedan with no license plate, which prompted the stop. A U.S. Marshal, two state troopers, two Drug Enforcement Agency agents and one HSI officer were on the scene. 

Several officers questioned the two men, while others searched the trunk and under the hood of the car. A DEA officer said they found drugs in the car and tested those substances at the scene. The quantity of drugs was enough to be considered a “user amount,” a DEA agent said, so officers decided to give the men citations rather than arresting them. 

The officers and the two men spoke under the gas station’s fluorescent lights for around 20 minutes as one of the state troopers prepared the necessary paperwork in his car. The two men then provided thumbprints and signed the citations. The confiscated drugs would be taken to a secure site as evidence, one DEA agent said.

The stop lasted nearly an hour before agents returned to their cars and drove away. The two men said they felt “terrible,” but declined to answer further questions about the stop. Before they departed, one DEA agent told MLK50 that he feels task force agents are being targeted.

“(We’re) just here to make the community better,” he said.

Nov. 20

5:20 p.m. — Bowen Avenue and Treadwell Street 

A cluster of law enforcement stood along a residential street, wearing vests indicating they were with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, MPD, FBI and HSI. MPD, trooper and unmarked vehicles lined the street. 

Further down the road, a group of Vecindarios 901 volunteers and bystanders gathered on the sidewalk of the darkened roadway. They recounted an interaction between law enforcement and a Vecindarios 901 responder that had just concluded. The organization runs a rapid response hotline for people to report suspected immigration enforcement activity. 

Local activist Hunter Demster said a volunteer was walking on Bowen Avenue when they were stopped by the police. He was on the phone with them when the stop took place. 

“Not 30 seconds later, the MPD officer goes … ‘What are you doing here?’” Demster recalled hearing over the phone. “(The volunteer) is like, ‘I live in the neighborhood.’ And (the officer) goes, ‘Put your phone down, you’re under arrest.’” 

Demster said the phone cut off, but that after he and others arrived on the scene, the volunteer was released. 

In a video recorded by Demster and provided to MLK50, the volunteer described being surrounded by police and federal agents and being put in handcuffs. The agents took the volunteer’s phone away, saying they were detaining, but not arresting, them and that the volunteer needed to provide identification or they would call HSI to do a fingerprint analysis. 

The volunteer said they provided their birthday and last name to the officers. According to the volunteer, the officers said they were detained to prevent them from alerting anyone in the neighborhood to law enforcement’s presence before serving a warrant. Witnesses told MLK50 they did not see a warrant served.

“It sounds like because (they have) been a presence in the community, watching them all day, that potentially this was retaliation,” Demster said. 

The volunteer said in the video that a law enforcement member pulled a gun on them after they asked a question the previous day. 

6:50 p.m. — Wells Express Gas Station at Wells Station Road and Grey Road

As dense fog rolled into Memphis, a handful of law enforcement officers spoke with a man crouched in the driver’s seat of a Chevy Suburban with a mismatched hood and cracked windshield. Motorists and onlookers ambled in and out of the gas station. A portable generator roared a few feet away, powering the Los Volcanes food truck. A sign hung high on the nearby store declared Vendemos Productos Mexicanos – We sell Mexican Products. 

Both the passenger and driver doors were left open. The driver of the stopped vehicle later told MLK50 reporters that his passenger, a work colleague who was an immigrant from Mexico, was detained earlier in the traffic stop.

The driver of the car said he was stopped because the light shining on the license plate wasn’t bright enough. An unmarked minivan and a new model pickup truck joined the trooper, who also had an HSI agent riding in his vehicle.   

When the officers pulled him over, they learned he was driving with a suspended license. They let him go with a warning, but arrested his colleague, he said. 

An item of clothing rested on the front of the trooper’s vehicle behind the van. The driver, a tall white man, told MLK50 that his passenger had admitted to stealing the clothing from a nearby store. His colleague was later released, the driver said. 

A trooper drove the SUV away from the gasoline pumps, parking it beside the convenience store. When a friend of the driver arrived to take the vehicle home, the trooper looked over the friend’s driver’s license. 

“No more driving till you get it taken care of, or you’ll go to jail,” the trooper told the vehicle’s owner.

Brittany Brown is the public safety reporter for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Email her at brittany.brown@mlk50.com

Natalie Wallington is the housing reporter for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Email her at natalie.wallington@mlk50.com.

Katherine Burgess is the government accountability reporter for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Contact her at katherine.burgess@mlk50.com

Andrea Morales is the visuals director for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Email her at  andrea.morales@mlk50.com

Michael Finch II is the enterprise reporter for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Contact him at mike.finch@mlk50.com

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