Human Impact Project

Mario Cesar Martinez Castrillon, a citizen of Peru who had been paroled into the United States under the Migrant Protection Protocols program, was detained during a scheduled ICE check-in appointment on January 13, 2026. He had been living in Memphis, Tennessee, had obtained a driver's license and work authorization, and had been regularly reporting to ICE as required. The court denied his habeas corpus petition challenging his detention without an individualized bond hearing. Jose Roberto Casanova-Vidal, a citizen of Peru who entered the U.S. in November 2022, was detained on December 1, 2025 after voluntarily appearing at the Memphis Immigration office for allegedly failing to comply with ATD program conditions. He had previously been released on parole due to time in custody constraints and placed in the Alternatives to Detention program. The court denied his habeas petition seeking release or a bond hearing, ruling that as an applicant for admission he is subject to mandatory detention under federal law.

Four men were charged in connection with an ICE raid at a Hardin Valley construction site on January 13, with charges filed in January and a superseding indictment in March. All four were accused of conspiring to conceal and harbor undocumented immigrants for financial gain. Three men, including one accused of using a pickup truck to block the site entrance and strike agents' vehicle, were also charged with conspiring to prevent federal officers from performing their duties.

Bryan Cuautle Romero, 29, a long-term U.S. resident married to a U.S. citizen with two U.S. citizen children, was detained at West Tennessee Detention Facility in Mason on November 21, 2025, after checking in at an ICE office. ICE invoked a mandatory detention policy for individuals without admission or inspection. Despite a subsequent Sixth Circuit Court ruling against the mandatory detention policy in May 2026, Bryan had already accepted voluntary deportation to Mexico with a final removal date of June 6, 2026. His wife Lauren plans to pursue an I-130 petition to bring him back to the United States.

A man appeared in court in Lebanon, Tennessee for a routine traffic violation when ICE agents in plain clothes detained him without showing identification. His U.S. citizen daughter intervened and was injured in the process. The man was taken away in a white van, and his family reports lacking clear answers about his whereabouts or status. Five people were detained by ICE after appearing in Robertson County General Sessions Court on November 19 to answer summons for misdemeanor traffic violations. All five had pleaded guilty to traffic offenses and paid their fines before being escorted to a private room and subsequently removed from the courthouse in handcuffs and leg shackles by masked ICE agents. The detainees, including Yanim Lopez and Aurora Leao, both originally from Mexico, were transferred to detention facilities in Knoxville and later Louisiana. ICE arrested 6,251 people in Tennessee between January 20 and October 15, 2025, with arrest rates rising throughout the year. Attorneys report that immigrants following legal requirements—including routine ICE check-ins—are now being detained and deported, a shift from previous practice. The article documents cases where immigrants with no criminal records are detained at check-ins, judges in some counties are contacting ICE, and immigration holds prevent bonded release, leaving immigrants in jail for months before court appearances.

An undocumented immigrant and his family, including three U.S. citizen children, hid in their apartment during a police response to a violent crime in Memphis, fearing ICE enforcement. The family remained on the floor in the dark for about 10 minutes, worried that police would knock on doors searching for suspects and potentially take the father into custody.

A 72-year-old man was removed from his apartment and marched outside while wearing only his robe and underwear as a result of mistaken identity during Memphis Safe Task Force operations. He was among residents harassed during the task force surge authorized by President Trump.

Reggie Williams, a 39-year-old Black artist, was stopped by Memphis police officers while walking to a nearby store on October 15, 2025. After initial questioning, four armed federal agents in an unmarked SUV with rifles and body armor but no identifying badges descended on him and conducted an aggressive interrogation. An armed agent asked if he was from Ethiopia or Ghana. Williams said he believed he would not have made it home safely without his birth certificate and state ID. He was not arrested or ticketed but reported feeling terrorized during the encounter, which occurred as part of Trump's Memphis Safe Task Force operation.

Rev. ELaura James Reid, a 49-year-old pastor of Coleman Chapel CME Church and lifelong Memphian, was pulled over on October 10, 2025, by a man in camouflage fatigues driving an unmarked SUV with a matte army green finish as she left a church unity summit at an East Memphis hotel. The officer claimed she looked lost or was "driving unsure," though she had properly stopped at a stop sign and signaled her turn. When Reid questioned whether it was normal for National Guard members to ask for licenses, the officer told her to have a nice day and let her go. She was not arrested or ticketed.

Alandria London, a Black ride-share driver, was pulled over by a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper on October 8, 2025, while taking a passenger to the airport. The officer claimed he did not see her seat belt, though she was wearing one. After the officer said he needed to "call it in," an Immigration and Customs Enforcement van pulled up behind the motorcycle. London believes she was profiled as Hispanic and stopped as a pretext for an immigration check. She was not cited or arrested but posted about the incident on Facebook with a photo showing herself wearing the seat belt.

Jessica Chodor was tackled and assaulted by a Memphis Safe Task Force officer while attempting to film a traffic stop. She was held down on the ground, threatened with a taser, and arrested on a charge of "resisting official detention," which was later dropped. The incident left her fearful of continuing to document task force operations; she now avoids filming unless other observers are present. Chodor is a plaintiff in an ACLU lawsuit challenging the task force's pattern of intimidation and retaliation against community observers.

Hunter Demster, who runs a soup kitchen in Memphis, has faced sustained intimidation and retaliation from officers with the Memphis Safe Task Force while attempting to document immigration enforcement operations. Demster has been taunted by officers, had bright lights shined at him, been followed in his car, and had an officer swerve toward him in a parking lot, missing him by inches. Agents sometimes sit in vehicles outside his house. Demster and other community observers have filed an ACLU lawsuit alleging that task force agents—including DHS officers, other law enforcement agencies, and National Guard—are engaged in a pattern of intimidation and retaliation that violates First Amendment rights to record police.

An ICE agent was recorded on video pulling a gun on a young woman whose father was being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Berclair area of Memphis.

Edgardo David Campos, a 55-year-old Salvadoran man who has lived in the United States for 30 years, was arrested by ICE agents in tactical gear at a gas station in South Nashville in early May on his birthday. A Tennessee state trooper was present during the arrest, which was captured on video by bystander Dinora Romero, who helped locate his family and return his vehicle to his home. Campos is a construction and tire installation worker and devoted family man married with a wife. His cousin Laura Campos described him as "the first to arrive and the last to leave" at his church, always willing to volunteer and help others. The Nashville Catholic Diocese and local parishioners rallied around him, with a parish petition describing him as the "heart of our parish" who has faithfully served in multiple church ministries for years. The arrest was part of "Operation Flood the Zone," a coordinated week-long effort between Tennessee state police and ICE targeting Latino neighborhoods, during which over 600 vehicles were stopped and ICE claimed nearly 200 arrests. Campos was held at Putnam County Jail over the weekend with no charges filed, then transferred to Knox County Jail where charges remained unfiled. Spanish-speaking parishes in Nashville saw a 50% drop in Mass attendance following the operation.

Leyvis Edi Velasquez-Perez was arrested by ICE in Chattanooga, Tennessee while on supervised probation after conviction for solicitation of a minor. He had prior convictions for driving without a license in Georgia and failure to obey traffic laws in North Carolina. According to ICE, he has no documentation of legal entry into the United States and is being held pending removal proceedings.

Early Sunday morning, Tennessee Highway Patrol, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Department of Homeland Security conducted a joint operation in South Nashville, pulling over approximately 150 people for alleged traffic violations. Federal ICE agents used the stops to investigate immigration-related matters, and those detained were transported to a federal immigration facility in Louisiana. Advocacy groups including Hijos de Immigrantes and the Tennessee Immigration and Refugee Rights Coalition criticized the operation as racial profiling, with organizers noting that officers stopped people for minor infractions like broken tail lights and tinted windows in the heart of the immigrant community. As of the article, advocacy groups had verified about 40 detainees and were working to provide legal assistance to all those affected.

During a May 2025 joint THP and ICE operation in Nashville, a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper pulled over a vehicle for a broken light and shared the driver's immigration status with an ICE agent, resulting in the driver's detention and deportation. The week-long operation resulted in more than 100 arrests, separating families and leaving relatives behind in Nashville. Body camera footage from one traffic stop shows how the operation unfolded, with the ICE agent detaining the driver after learning of his undocumented status. Nearly a year later, families of those deported continue experiencing the operation's impacts.

Terez Metry was detained by immigration agents during a routine meeting at the Department of Homeland Security office on Brick Church Pike in Nashville. She had submitted Form I-130 as the first step toward obtaining a Green Card to become a U.S. citizen like her husband of three years. Her husband believes she is being taken to Louisiana for removal proceedings despite following immigration procedures carefully.

Adrián Ramírez, 45, was deported from Nashville to his hometown in Michoacán, Mexico after more than two decades in the United States. Upon return, he was interrogated and photographed by cartel members, then watched as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel took control of his town, killing the gas station owner and extorting residents. Fearing for his life, Ramírez left his pueblo a few months later and relocated to another town, also controlled by the cartel. He now works at a tortillería and has been warned that cartel members may question him about his origins. He remains separated from his three children in the U.S. and fears detention if he attempts to return.