Memphis, with about 610,000 residents, saw 195 homicides from last January to this January, according to data analysis from the F.B.I., compared with 251 in the same 2024 time frame. It is still one of the highest rates in the nation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/us/politics/memphis-crime-federal-agents-immigration.html

Driving through Memphis, it is hard not to feel the presence of the federal task force that has patrolled the city since September.

Cars are often stopped on the side of the road, surrounded by clusters of law enforcement agents and a mix of patrol and unmarked cars. National Guard troops in camouflage stand patrol outside stores and restaurants. Some of the main business strips seem emptier, even for a chilly stretch of January.

Memphis has been experiencing a show of force similar to those in cities like Minneapolis, where the Trump administration has sent hundreds of agents to enforce its immigration crackdown. But unlike in Minneapolis, where tensions have boiled over into frequent and at times violent confrontations this month, the task force in Memphis has focused broadly on fighting crime.

And support from Republican state leaders — and to an extent, from the city’s Democratic mayor, Paul Young — has kept things to an uneasy simmer.

To proponents of the operation, it has been a shining example of the administration’s aggressive approach to law enforcement, with city police officers, state troopers and federal agents collaborating as a single force. After U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, noted that Mayor Young of Memphis had “worked with us and our federal law enforcement officers.”

Compared with Minneapolis, she said, the Memphis operation was having “a very different result because of the leadership in place.”

Memphis, with about 610,000 residents, saw 195 homicides from last January to this January, according to data analysis from the F.B.I., compared with 251 in the same 2024 time frame. It is still one of the highest rates in the nation.

“I see it as an extraordinarily successful solution to a chronic violent crime problem in Memphis that’s motivated by greed and evil,” said Michael Dunavant, who was sworn as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee in October. “We’re finally, actually enforcing the law.”

But those who are uncomfortable with the task force’s presence also say that the federal operation — “the occupation,” as some have branded it — has harmed some of the city’s most vulnerable residents while very likely doing little to reduce crime in the long term. Many poor people of color, they say, are avoiding their usual routines for fear of being pulled over or arrested. The majority Black city has a long history of the police using excessive force and racially profiling.

“We’ve been the brunt of a lot of stuff considering how much that we produce culturally, economically, for the state, for this country,” said Chris Collier, who volunteers at Gaisman Park in the Berclair neighborhood. “For them to take this approach here, it just seems a whole lot more than totally necessary.”

There is no set end date for the Memphis Safe Task Force, which began its work in late September after President Trump signed an executive order dispatching employees of more than a dozen agencies to the city. Agents from the F.B.I. and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are among those frequently on the streets. To date, the task force has made more than 6,300 arrests, conducted more than 68,000 traffic stops and recovered 1,532 firearms, according to city data.

More than half of the arrests were for nonviolent offenses, according to the data — even though the task force says its focus is violent crime. Still, crime rates, which had already been declining, have dropped even more since Oct. 1: Murder and sexual assault are down nearly 42 percent, while aggravated assault is down about 35 percent, according to city data.

Memphis residents broadly acknowledge that crime, which was already dropping, has decreased even more since the task force started its work. At the same time, there has been an uptick in the number of residents renewing vehicle registrations and drivers licenses, to avoid getting pulled over and penalized.

While immigration enforcement is not a stated focus of the task force, residents and local officials say that immigration arrests are quietly happening in tandem with the crime crackdown.

Joseph Richman, 48, who commutes from Forrest City, Ark., about 45 miles away, to work as a painter in Memphis, said the task force’s presence has left many people with “kind of a mixed feeling”: hope that it will help address crime, but also fear of profiling and mistreatment by task force members, given the city’s history of discriminatory policing.

“I really think that they need to be prayed for,” he added of the agents, just minutes after a group of agents made an arrest along the diverse, commercial stretch of Summer Avenue and drove away. “Sometimes they can make bad decisions pursuing good.”

After a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot Renee Good, an American citizen, on a Minneapolis street in early January, some Memphis residents expressed concern that something similar could happen in their city. Ms. Good was killed on the anniversary of the death of Tyre Nichols, who died in 2023 after a traffic stop with Memphis police officers turned violent.

Court documents show that many of the task force’s arrests have come after traffic stops, with officials citing a broken taillight or overly tinted window among the reasons for stopping a driver.

“You ain’t speeding, you ain’t doing nothing, they just looking for excuses,” said Billy Walker, 67, who said he is set to go to court in the coming weeks for two traffic infractions — one for having a clear cover over his license plate, the other for turning at a red light. Mr. Walker, who said he felt both infractions were unfair, added, “Quit messing with people that’s trying to go to work here every day.”

Compared with other cities, where clashes between federal agents and protesters are far more common and Democratic governors have been vocal in their opposition, backlash in Memphis has been far more muted. Clusters of activists have rallied behind a “Free the 901” campaign — a reference to the city’s area code — documenting law enforcement activity and pressuring elected leaders to oppose the surge of agents.

But in a sprawling city where neighborhoods are spread out and many residents are struggling to make ends meet, protesting can be risky or just impractical. Some residents have resorted to staying home. One woman, in a neighborhood where immigrants live, recounted how her free Zumba class that usually draws a few dozen people had dropped to single digits.

Democratic elected officials have had to make difficult calculations about how to react when Tennessee’s Republican governor and conservative supermajority in the legislature have outsize control over the city.

Mayor Lee Harris, a Democrat, of surrounding Shelby County, has joined a lawsuit seeking to end the National Guard deployment, which is set to having a hearing in March. But Mayor Young of Memphis has won plaudits from Republicans for working with the task force, even as he has voiced frustration about the Guard’s presence.

Mr. Young and his office did not immediately respond to questions about Ms. Noem’s comments on Memphis. But in an interview that took place before the two shootings in Minnesota, Mr. Young stressed that he believed “we’ve made the decisions that are in the best interest of the most people in our city.”

“I knew my options were different than other mayors in the country,” he said, referring to the fact that his state is governed by Republicans aligned with Mr. Trump.

Of the federal agents patrolling Memphis, he added: “I have power to influence their work. And that’s the power that I’m exercising, the influence of the work and their focus each and every day.”

He pointed to the number of open warrants the task force had pursued as part of its work, as well as the broader emphasis on violent crime, rather than immigration.

Citizens looking to blunt the task force’s impact have focused on raising money to cover bail for people arrested on minor offenses, delivering food to immigrants afraid to leave their homes or offering rides for those afraid to drive. They’ve also encouraged other residents to support only businesses that have publicly disowned the task force.

“We’re fighting from just a small corner,” said Rob Brown, the owner of Da Sammich Spot in the Orange Mound neighborhood, whose business fell off when the task force first arrived. But after a video went viral of Mr. Brown asking National Guard troops standing outside his business to leave after hours, he has sold out of loaded fries, sandwiches and fried fruit pies almost every day.

“We don’t want crime running rampant,” he added. Still, he said, law enforcement officers should not “treat people like nothing.”

The sheer number of task force arrests has strained the legal system and made overcrowding at the Shelby County Jail, a long-running problem, even worse.

Mr. Dunavant’s office in the Western District of Tennessee said that from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 141 people were charged under 111 indictments, compared with 37 people and 35 indictments over the same period in 2024. This month, the Pentagon dispatched 20 military lawyers from across the country to help with the caseload.

“The infrastructure has not been prepared,” said Lee Gerald, a defense lawyer who is representing a man accused of trying to run away from officers after he ran a red light and could not provide proof of citizenship.

“At some point, the task force is going to leave,” he added, “and the problems persist.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826804&forum_id=2\u0026show=posted#49619776)