Law enforcement officers in Memphis are “unleashed” to make arrests, White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller declared as the Trump administration launches a crime crackdown in the city.
Last month, President Donald Trump mobilized the National Guard and established the “Memphis Safe Task Force,” a collection of about a dozen federal law enforcement agencies ordered to fight crime in Tennessee’s second-largest city. National Guard troops are expected to arrive within the next two weeks, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis said Tuesday.
Just two days after the task force began its operations, Miller, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rallied state and federal officers in Memphis on Wednesday.
“To the guns and bats in this room, you are unleashed,” Miller told the crowd. “The handcuffs you’re carrying? They’re not on you anymore, they’re on the criminals.”
Speaking to the Memphis Police Department, he said: “We are about to provide you with a level of support that you cannot even imagine.”
Even before the Trump administration officials touched down, the task force’s operations seemed already be well underway.
As of Wednesday morning, the task force had made 53 arrests and seized 20 illegal firearms since Monday, according to Bondi’s social media post.
Still, Miller boasted about what the federal government had to offer the city.
The federal troops are not going to be “sitting behind a desk with a keyboard,” Miller said. “We’re sending in real cops, with guns and badges, to go out with you on the street every single night making arrests.”
“Every resource we have — federal, state and local — we are going to use to dismantle their networks without apology and without mercy,” Miller vowed. “Everything we have, we are going to bulldoze the criminal element of this city and thereby liberate all the law-abiding citizens in this city.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass criticized Miller’s comments.
“To tell law enforcement that they are now unleashed and they can use their guns is essentially saying: ‘Go in primarily inner-city communities and shoot people,’” she told CNN Wednesday night.
The agents, who include personnel from immigration and drug enforcement, have begun serving criminal arrest warrants while teaming with state agencies like the Tennessee Highway Patrol to make traffic stops on interstates and state roads. Bondi said more than 200 officers were deputized.
“We are going to work hand-in-hand to make the most violent crime city in the country have no crime,” Bondi told the crowd.
The task force is part of a larger effort by President Donald Trump to use National Guard troops and surge federal law enforcement in American cities, particularly ones controlled by Democrats.
Trump has called the move necessary and attacked Democrats on crime and immigration policies. Following a the use of National Guard troops in the District of Columbia and Los Angeles, he referred to Portland, Oregon, as “war-ravaged” and threatened apocalyptic force in Chicago.
Mobile command centers for the Marshals Service and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have been set up at a staging area for the task force. A Marshals spokesperson said the service will release periodic updates that include arrest numbers, types of charges and participating agencies.
“With the addition of federal resources in Memphis, including enhanced interagency collaboration, it’s reasonable to expect an increase in warrant enforcement activity, particularly targeting violent offenders who pose a threat to public safety,” Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Ryan Guay said in an email to The Associated Press.
The task force also includes the Tennessee National Guard. Republican Gov. Bill Lee has said he would not expect more than 150 National Guard members to be sent to Memphis, though the numbers have not been solidified. The city has said there will be no tanks, and Lee said guard troops will not make arrests or be armed unless local authorities request it.
It’s unclear when guard members will begin their work with the Memphis Police Department. Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis said during a town-hall meeting Tuesday evening that it could be a couple of weeks.
Memphis has experienced high numbers of violent crimes such as carjackings and homicides in recent years, but both Democratic and Republican officials have noted that the city is seeing decreases this year in some crime categories.
Opponents of the deployment say it is an unnecessary federal occupation of a majority-Black city that instead needs more funding to address poverty and other drivers of crime. Supporters see it as a welcomed infusion of law enforcement for a city that, despite recent improvements in crime statistics, still needs help battling violence.
Across the country in Oregon, members of that state’s National Guard reported for duty on Wednesday. The troops were “preparing to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other U.S. Government personnel who are performing federal functions, including the enforcement of federal law, and to protect federal property in Oregon,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
