Detain First, Due Process Later: ACLU-TN Condemns the Memphis Safe Task Force’s Pattern of Abuse

Across the Bluff City, the dubiously named Memphis Safe Task Force continues to execute a campaign of terror on Memphis families. The latest incident occurred early Sunday morning, when ICE agents raided El Corralón nightclub and detained dozens of people, according to the immigrant advocacy group Vecindarios 901. These detentions were witnessed by the Memphis Police Department. And this is not the first time this has happened.

Three weeks earlier, on Aug. 8, Memphis police officers joined Memphis Safe Task Force agents in a raid on Legends Lounge. Reportedly 300 people were inside, and officers held the entire crowd, forcing them to line up and show identification before they could leave.

Our Constitution does not permit officers to detain an entire nightclub without actual evidence linking people to unlawful activity. And this reckless disregard for the Constitution threatens the rights and safety of every Memphian as Task Force members, including ICE, the National Guard, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), grow more emboldened under a system left unchecked by Memphis Mayor Paul Young, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, and President Donald Trump.

The recklessness extends beyond mass detention to fatal force. A recently released autopsy report indicates that on July 5, Tennessee National Guard troops shot Tyrin Johnson in the back. The report raises a searing question: what imminent threat could a man with his back turned pose to trained soldiers? In another news story that broke in August, the family of Jonah Neal stated that body camera footage shows that HSI’s shooting of Neal was unjustified. Neal was shot on May 20 after his mother called 911 seeking help for his mental health crisis. Imagine the heartbreak of calling the police to help a loved one facing a breakdown and being left to plan a funeral instead. That pain is the Neal family’s reality.

For months, Memphians have watched and documented the Memphis Safe Task Force’s operations because government accounts and street-level reality keep contradicting each other. ACLU-TN and our partners filed a lawsuit on behalf of Memphians who have faced retaliation simply for documenting the Task Force’s public activities. The damning recent news shows the importance of citizens bearing witness to the trauma the U.S. government has unleashed on its own citizens and residents.

Whether the Task Force is detaining hundreds of people at a nightclub, harassing Memphians with meritless traffic tickets, or opening fire on a young man seeking help, the pattern holds that legal protections for Memphians come last, if they come at all. Unequivocally, that is not how our laws work in the United States of America. Upholding the law is not optional for people sworn to enforce it.

Memphians are tired of living under siege in their own communities. They are tired of watching officers trample on their rights. Immigrant families, Black families, faith communities, students, veterans, and lovers of liberty from all corners of the city are demanding an end to policing from those carrying badges of dishonor — officers who make it harder for law-abiding officials to build community trust.

Memphians have been watching. Now the world is watching too and joining them in demanding transparent investigations into the Task Force’s actions. These actions have devastated families and taken the lives of Tyrin Johnson, Darrin Pigram, Jonah Neal, and Alfonso Ivy. In 1968, striking Memphis sanitation workers told the world they deserved respect from their government with the poignant slogan: “I Am a Man.” That truth rings just as loud in 2026. All Memphians deserve due process and dignity, and the ACLU of Tennessee will never stop demanding that this country fulfill its promise of liberty and justice for all.