Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more than 100 people in Memphis over the weekend — the largest raid in the city’s history, according to the local immigrant rights group 901 Vecindarios.
Eyewitnesses with the group said that ICE agents raided the bar El Corralón around 1 a.m. on Sunday morning with a fleet of rented buses. In a statement, Vecindarios said that agents intimidated witnesses into deleting recordings and discouraged filming by shining lights into the people’s cameras.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young has condemned the raid. In a statement, he said that Memphis police officers were not involved in “planning or carrying out” the raid, but that they did help with traffic and crowd control in the aftermath.
“I know that distinction does not erase the fear people are feeling today,” Young said. “But I can assure you of this: the people impacted … are our neighbors. They are part of our Memphis community, and they deserve to be treated with dignity.”
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The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition decried the raid and new state laws intended to aid President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.
“When we say this administration is trying to reshape our nation in their narrow white nationalist vision, this is what it looks like: disappearing our families, neighbors, friends, and co-workers in the night with no regard for the devastation they leave behind,” TIRRC Director Lisa Sherman Luna said.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to WPLN’s request for comment by publication time but has confirmed the raid to local media. A spokesperson for the Memphis Safe Task Force told The Memphis Commercial Appeal that the multi-agency group had no involvement in the raid.
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