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I've been writing immigration in Memphis for years, and as long as I can remember, leaders of the Memphis Police Department have said they don't enforce immigration law.
For instance, here's a statement MPD issued following ICE arrests in 2017. "ICE is an independent agency and not affiliated with the Memphis Police Department. The MPD has not, and will not, conduct any investigations concerning immigration laws." https://www.facebook.com/mpd1827/posts/please-be-advisederroneous-information-pertaining-to-the-memphis-police-departme/1433048576775497/
The background: police leaders concluded years ago that if immigrants saw the police as immigration enforcers, they would scare off witnesses and victims who could help them solve crimes involving immigrants.
For instance, long ago, armed robbers in Memphis and other cities began targeting Hispanic immigrants. To encourage victims to serve as witnesses, Memphis authorities even created a special witness card that unauthorized immigrants could show to immigration agents if stopped.
Also for years, we've seen public outreach efforts from MPD to immigrants - for instance, numerous police officials took part in this month's Day of the Dead parade, including some in skull makeup.
Here's another outreach effort: police officers came to a Guatemalan mobile consulate event in Memphis in September and had a person in a giant inflatable police costume interact with the crowd.
At the same time that this public outreach is happening, some people have argued that behind the scenes, at least some MPD officials collaborate with ICE.
New documents have emerged in relation to the case of arrested Spanish-language reporter Manuel Duran. In an email, a person listed double affiliations: the Multi-Agency Gang Unit and ICE. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6536608-Emails-Manuel-Duran.html#document/p7/a534677
For context, the Multi-Agency Gang Unit is a Memphis law enforcement entity that consists of Memphis police and other local and federal agencies. It's led by a Memphis police officer.
I got these emails from Duran's team in September. You can read the whole set here. Again, they suggest that an ICE agent was also a member of the gang unit. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6536608-Emails-Manuel-Duran.html
The emails are redacted and a bit ambiguous. I contacted both the Memphis Police Department and the Shelby County District Attorney's office, which oversees the gang unit. Both sent me some emailed information - but neither would agree to an interview.
In an email, the head of the gang unit said he didn't know who wrote the ICE / gang unit email - and that the person also got the name of the unit wrong. (It's not the West Tennessee gang unit but rather the Multi-Agency Gang Unit.)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement _did_ do interviews by phone and said an agent with ICE's deportation arm had been part of the gang unit.
The conclusion from all I gathered: The Memphis-area gang unit _did_ cooperate with ICE, but the people I spoke with gave different versions of what happened. The local authorities described the cooperation as in the past - ICE described it as _largely_ in the past.
The police department released this statement regarding an investigation into local Hispanic gangs that took place from 2014 to 2017 - apparently with the help of ICE's investigations arm. I went through and annotated some of the more notable arrests. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6543751-Violent-Offenders-Arrested-MPD-Statement.html
Cooperation between Memphis local law enforcement and ICE's criminal investigations arm continues to this day via the Public Safety Partnership, a joint federal-local effort. Here's an article we did on that. https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2019/09/09/violent-crimes-hundreds-law-enforcement-officials-visit-memphis-bureau-justice-assistance-federal/2261193001/
Many details about the scope of the cooperation between MPD and ICE remain unclear. It is unclear if today's relationship between the MPD and ICE is limited to a small number of officers working on inter-agency efforts, or if it might be larger.
I realize some people will say that this is fine - law enforcement agencies should cooperate. But in this case, we really don't have a full picture of what our Memphis-area law enforcement agencies are doing today regarding ICE.
It's a matter of high importance to many people in immigrant communities and also outside those communities. I'd like to finish this thread with something decisive and conclusive, but at the moment I have only partial information, so I'll refrain.
Still, we have more information now than we had a month ago, and you can read a synopsis of what I know here: this is a subscribers-only article. https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2019/11/10/ice-immigration-confirms-cooperation-memphis-law-enforcement/2261218001/
P.S. I should note that journalists' search for facts of public importance doesn't take away from officers' hard work. I thank the MPD officer who wrote a report when I was rear-ended in a minor traffic crash last night. I appreciated him doing his job in the cold and sleet.
