Human Impact Project

Terez Metry, a 28-year-old dental assistant with no criminal record, was detained by ICE in Alabama immediately after receiving I-130 approval during a routine immigration interview at a Department of Homeland Security office in Nashville. Metry, who had fled Egypt as a teenager at age 13 and received a removal order at that time, was separated from her U.S. citizen husband Dominique Flemister during the interview. Metry had been living and working in Nashville since 2018 and the couple believed they were following proper legal procedures for her immigration case.

Federal prosecutors filed charges against two American citizens, including an 18-year-old, stemming from an ICE raid at a Hardin Valley construction site. The workers are accused of preventing federal agents from enforcing immigration law, with allegations that one used his truck to strike an ICE vehicle. Witnesses dispute the account, stating an ICE agent struck the teen's truck first before agents aimed guns and forcibly removed him from the vehicle.

Tear gas was deployed into a home during an ICE arrest operation Friday night in the Berclair area of Memphis involving a family, ICE agents, and the Memphis Safe Task Force. Children were exposed to tear gas during the operation, though they were sheltered in a closet.

A Peruvian man 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. Another Peruvian citizen, 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. She now avoids filming task force operations unless other observers are present. On May 13, Chodor and three other Memphis residents filed a federal lawsuit against the task force, alleging a pattern of retaliation and intimidation against people who record its operations, including improper use of Tennessee's 25-foot "Halo Law" to push back or arrest observers.

Hunter Demster, who runs a soup kitchen in Memphis, was arrested by officers with the Memphis Safe Task Force on August 26, 2026, while attempting to film task force activity, according to newly released video and a declaration filed in his ongoing ACLU lawsuit. The footage shows federal Homeland Security Investigations officers repeatedly moving toward Demster and ordering him to retreat, despite his insistence that he remained more than 25 feet away as required under Tennessee's "Halo Law." The ACLU says the arrest is further evidence of a continuing campaign of intimidation against Demster and eight other Memphis residents who allege in the lawsuit, filed in mid-May, that they have been violently arrested, surveilled at their homes, and wrongly pulled over for trying to document the task force, which has operated in Memphis since September 2025 under orders from President Trump and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.

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.

A Guatemalan-born mother, identified by the pseudonym Maria Perez to protect her identity, was detained by ICE at her Nashville residence on May 19 while preparing to take her children to a doctor's appointment. At the time, Perez was breastfeeding her infant daughter and caring for another young daughter who has Down syndrome and other health complications. Her attorneys say her detention at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center violated ICE Directive 11032.4, which discourages detaining pregnant, postpartum, or nursing people, and that she has no criminal history despite ICE's claim she previously faced charges for falsely claiming citizenship. Perez was released on Aug. 14 after nearly three months in custody, during which her ability to breastfeed ended, and she was reunited with her daughters at the home of a neighbor who had cared for them; her eldest daughter reacted with anger, believing she had been abandoned. Civil rights groups have filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General alleging the detention violated ICE policy on visitation with minor children, and Perez's partner remains detained at a facility in Oklahoma as she continues pursuing her asylum application on electronic monitoring.

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 one Sunday in May, Tennessee Highway Patrol, ICE and the Department of Homeland Security conducted a joint operation dubbed "Operation Flood the Zone" in South Nashville, pulling over roughly 150 drivers for alleged traffic violations and transporting detainees to a federal facility in Louisiana. Advocacy groups, including Hijos de Immigrantes and the Tennessee Immigration and Refugee Rights Coalition, said officers targeted people over minor infractions like broken taillights and tinted windows in immigrant communities, calling it racial profiling. A six-month investigation by Lighthouse Reports, Mother Jones and partner newsrooms, based on ICE documents, court records and police footage, found that about 75 percent of the roughly 200 people ICE said it arrested had no criminal record, despite the agency's claim it had detained "the worst of the worst." Nine months later, Nashville residents say they still have little information from state or federal officials about who was detained and deported in the operation.

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.