MEMPHIS, TENN— According to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, an overnight operation at the business El Corralón resulted in community members detained and taken away on buses, with little information as to why and where they were being taken. Witnesses on the scene identified several federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and believe more than 100 individuals were detained.
The following is a statement from Lisa Sherman Luna, Executive Director at The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition:
“When more than 100 people are violently rounded up in the middle of the night it sends devastating shockwaves through the entire community. Fathers not returning home to their families, roommates left wondering where their friend is, businesses left shuttered and short-staffed as entrepreneurs and workers don’t show up Monday morning. 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.
This destruction has been turbo-charged by the federal occupation in Memphis, where under the guise of public safety five Black men have been shot and thousands harassed as they go about their daily lives. When federal and local law enforcement collaborate to swarm neighborhood establishments and kidnap community members in the middle of the night, all of us are less safe. Memphis has become the testing ground for the type of authoritarian control the Trump administration wants to roll out across the country in a desperate attempt to hold on to power.
But Tennesseans have made clear that they won’t stand by and watch our state government collude with the Trump administration to disappear our neighbors without a fight. Within minutes of the operation starting, community members and volunteers were on-site to bravely document the abuses, help families locate their loved ones, and take in information about those detained. Through this devastation we will continue to courageously come together with our neighbors to organize, build power, and fight for a Tennessee where all of us have the freedom to belong, no matter who we are or where we came from.”
