Editor’s Note: Some of the videos obtained from the Tennessee Highway Patrol via record requests obscured the faces of Homeland Security agents that were visible in other videos. MLK50 only blurred images and videos to protect the identities of the underage passengers in the car with Yasser Lopez Soza. Screenshots from the videos received minimal cropping and editing for contrast.
The Memphis Police Department and the Tennessee Highway Patrol coordinated closely with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the February traffic stop that led to the immigration detainment of 18-year-old Yasser Lopez Soza, newly obtained video shows. The videos appear to contradict a statement from Memphis Mayor Paul Young about how immigration officials became involved in the stop.
In April, Young told The Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis that immigration officials arrived on the scene after monitoring MPD radio traffic.
Instead, the videos show a Homeland Security Investigations agent riding as a passenger in the MPD cruiser that made the traffic stop. Additional HSI officers arrived at the scene in THP cruisers, with one trooper referring to an agent as “my HSI guy.”
Young’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The videos were provided to MLK50: Justice Through Journalism after a March records request to the Tennessee Highway Patrol. MLK50 also requested both body- and dash-camera footage of the stop from the Memphis Police Department. MPD has delayed fulfilling the request at least seven times.
The city did not answer a question about why the records request has been repeatedly delayed.
The videos provide fresh insight into how different agencies in the Memphis Safe Task Force work together to do immigration enforcement as hundreds of people without criminal records are detained. The videos also raise new questions about the reason for the traffic stop, why Lopez Soza was taken to Enforcement and Removal Operations, and who made the decision.
Officers discovered that Lopez Soza, a high school student at Memphis Business Academy, was already in immigration court proceedings when the stop occurred. Ultimately, he was detained for two months in the West Tennessee Detention Facility in Mason, until a federal judge ordered his release in April.
The nine videos provided by THP show various angles of the hour-long traffic stop on Feb. 20. The videos’ perspectives are limited to those captured by THP cameras, meaning conversations between Memphis police officers and HSI officers were often not captured or are partially inaudible. HSI is a branch of ICE that usually investigates things like human trafficking, financial crime and narcotics smuggling.
The videos show Memphis police officers working with HSI agents to identify Lopez Soza and discussing his immigration status. Lopez Soza was not driving the vehicle. Three of his classmates — who were under 18 — were also in the car. They were stopped while driving to their season-opening soccer game.
The students were held in the back of MPD cruisers for about an hour while members of various agencies discussed if they should be detained.
“It says his name is Yasser?” asked a female HSI agent, comparing her phone to one held by a Memphis police officer.
“Yasser,” the Memphis police officer responded. “Y A S S E R Lopez.”
“Yeah, that’s him,” the woman replied, saying Lopez Soza had received a notice to appear in immigration court in 2023.
The city of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department did not respond to questions about why HSI agents are in MPD vehicles, why MPD held the students while HSI decided to detain Lopez Soza or what directions have been given to MPD about working with immigration authorities.
“The Memphis Police Department’s priority remains on addressing crime and safeguarding the well-being of our community,” the Memphis Police Department said in an email. “The MPD does not enforce immigration laws. Immigration enforcement is within the jurisdiction of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
Jay Fearnley, Lopez Soza’s attorney, said the videos showed MPD working closely with HSI.
“Despite clear communications from MPD in the fall of 2025, and continued repetitions in 2026, that MPD would not assist ICE or other federal departments in detaining parties suspected of being present in the US without status as a result of a simple municipal traffic stop, THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT TOOK PLACE WITH YASSER LOPEZ,” Fearnley said in a written statement to MLK50.
Videos show confusion around detention decision
The videos show HSI officers and state troopers expressing confusion about whether Lopez Soza should be detained.
Agents discuss that Lopez Soza had a March immigration court date. Eventually someone in a highway patrol cruiser who identifies himself as “with HSI in Memphis” calls enforcement and removal to ask if they want Lopez Soza brought in.
The ERO representative said they aren’t allowed to make that decision, but: “… if y’all want to bring him in we’ll take him as long as, you know, he’s illegal, or he’s here illegally … they’re taking pretty much everybody. The only one they’ll think about is a woman if she has kids or if she’s pregnant.”
The man in the car told the representative that Lopez Soza didn’t appear to have a criminal history. He “didn’t have an ID on him, but he gave us his info, and we found him. I have his A number,” he says.
About 30 minutes into the traffic stop, one man is heard murmuring under his breath while seated in a Tennessee Highway Patrol cruiser, “I ain’t trying to deal with a bunch of fucking illegals.” MLK50 could not determine which agency the man worked for.
THP did not respond to a series of questions from MLK50. The Memphis Safe Task Force referred a request for comment to THP and HSI.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, told MLK50 that “Records checks indicated Lopez-Souza [sic] was an illegal alien from Nicaragua. He did not possess valid immigration documents allowing him to be in the United States legally. We are not going to ignore the rule of law.”
They also called the judge who ordered Lopez Soza released “an activist judge appointed by Barack Obama.”
Agents also discuss how the task force appears to differ from immigration enforcement in other parts of the country. A female HSI agent first seen exiting an MPD vehicle says she doubts ERO will want to take the 17-year-old students, but adds, “I don’t know how cool ERO is down here.
“You guys get away — not get away with, but you guys can do so much more than we can in sanctuary cities,” she said.
Another agent replied: “Here, the report goes straight to the White House, to (U.S. President Donald) Trump, and (White House deputy chief of staff Stephen) Miller. Twice a day, it goes first thing in the morning, and it goes at night.”
MPD shows concern over ‘perception’ of working with ICE
Much of the audible conversation across the nine videos revolves around which agency could transport Lopez Soza from the scene.
“The MPD guys are saying they’re not able to transfer them,” an HSI agent said to a state trooper about 48 minutes into the traffic stop. “… I think it’s the whole working with us thing, the perception of it.”
“That’s the dumbest thing ever,” the trooper responds.
The trooper later calls someone to ask for permission to transport Lopez Soza.
“If it’s task force operations, nothing really changed,” the person answering the phone says, advising the trooper that he would double-check with someone else.
As the trooper waits for a call back, the HSI agent riding with him apologizes: “Sorry about this dawg, this ain’t what we do … but when we come across it like that, and then they started lying, we was trying to identify them….”
“So do they actually go to high school?” the trooper asks.
“Yeah, they go to that high school over on Overton Crossing right at the top of the hill,” the agent says.
“How they go there if they’re illegal?” the trooper asks.
“Probably a sanctuary school or something,” the HSI agent says. “All four of ‘em got issues with immigration.”
Under federal law, all children are entitled to access a public education regardless of their immigration status. Memphis Business Academy is a public charter school.
Questions remain about traffic stop
After reviewing the video provided to him by MLK50, Fearnley, the attorney, said he saw “no clear reason for the stop other than “MPD found it odd the vehicle changed lanes in a suspicious manner as soon as the officer began to trail it.” MPD did not answer a question about whether the driver received a citation.
“Being a person of Latino descent with an accent and driving a car within the city limits of Memphis are not particularized enough reasons for further inquiry into the federal status of a person,” Fearnley said. “Yasser Lopez was racially profiled and detained unlawfully.”
The City of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department did not respond to a question about why the stop was made.
In one video, a trooper says early on that he smells weed from the Nissan. They never appear to find any, and none of the videos include mention of weed again.
Officers say that the car filled with students didn’t stop right away when signaled to do so, but instead started “slow rolling.” It’s unclear why they were signaled to stop in the first place, although there is a reference to changing lanes.
“I thought they were gonna run from us,” a trooper says.
“That’s what we thought too,” a female HSI agent responds.
“So what happened, they just didn’t stop?” someone asks.
“They’re playing the whole don’t speak English game,” the female HSI agent responds.
The agents also express concern that if the stop takes too long, the news will show up.
Eventually, video shows two HSI agents escorting Lopez Soza away from the MPD cars and to another vehicle. The HSI agent riding along in the THP cruiser tells the trooper, “I’m gonna help him transport him down to ERO … And then we’ll meet up once we’re done.”
“That’s fine,” the trooper responds.
DHS confirmed to MLK50 that Lopez Soza was ultimately taken to Enforcement and Removal Operations by “an HSI agent serving on the Memphis Safe Task Force.”
Katherine Burgess is the government accountability reporter for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Contact her at katherine.burgess@mlk50.com
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