Federal authorities are racking up arrests in Tennessee’s second-most populous city as President Donald Trump surges federal officers and National Guard troops to crack down on crime across major Democratic-run cities.
The president suggested this week the cities could be used as a “training ground” for the nation’s military. The list already includes Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland – where local leaders are pushing back on a White House effort to federalize 200 members of Oregon’s National Guard.
In Memphis, “219 officers were special deputized and our Joint Operations Center is up and running,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Tuesday. By the next morning, the “Memphis Safe Task Force ha(d) made 53 arrests and seized 20 illegal firearms,” said Bondi, who visited the city Wednesday with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Speaking in Tennessee, Hegseth said it’s the federal government’s job to “help liberate” law enforcement in Memphis, so that they are “freed up to go out and provide safety and freedom to the citizens.”
Outside a county jail east of central Memphis, federal and state law enforcement – some in FBI vests – organized around sunrise Wednesday. About 100 vehicles, including RVs and command trucks with US Marshals Service and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation logos, were parked in nearby lots and fields.
A CNN crew also spotted uniformed military personnel flanked by Humvees at the makeshift command center — about two weeks after Trump said the National Guard would be dispatched to Memphis. CNN has reached out to the National Guard for a timeline of their arrival in the city.
In Oregon, meanwhile, guard members are “now in place,” Trump posted Wednesday afternoon on social media. The Portland mayor’s press office couldn’t immediately confirm whether troops are in the city; CNN has reached out to the Portland Police Bureau, the governor’s office and the Oregon Military Department.
State leaders are resisting, arguing this week in a federal lawsuit and a text exchange between the Democratic governor and a Trump aide that the GOP president’s urge to quell “anarchy” in Portland is based on old and faulty intel – and boots are on the ground simply are not needed.
‘Saturation of besieged’ areas
In Memphis, Trump wants the federal task force to model what he has cast as the success of 2,000 National Guard troops in Washington. The operation, he said, calls for “large-scale saturation of besieged neighborhoods with law enforcement personnel” and “strict enforcement of applicable quality-of-life, nuisance, and public-safety laws.”
While Memphis has seen high numbers of violent crimes such as homicides and carjackings in recent years, Democratic and Republican officials have noted decreases this year in some crime categories.
Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat, met Monday with federal agency officials, and talks continue about how the feds can support Memphis police, he said.
“We’ve seen historic reductions in crime over the past 20 or so months, and we want to continue to build upon that. We do have every reason to believe that they are going to be collaborative and work with our police department throughout this process,” Young told CNN affiliate WHBQ at a Tuesday town hall, noting there wouldn’t be an uptick in checkpoints, like in DC.
Republican Gov. Bill Lee would not expect more than 150 National Guard members to be sent to Memphis or for tanks to roll there, he has said, adding troops would not make arrests or be armed unless local authorities requested it. The Tennessee governor said he is “grateful to be a willing partner” to federal agencies during his remarks at the operations center on Wednesday.
Despite Trump’s comparing Memphis with Washington, the federal operation in Tennessee’s second-most populous city is different than in the nation’s capital, where troops report to the Secretary of the Army. Orders in Memphis would subject troops to the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars them from engaging in law enforcement.
“I welcome this task force,” Rickey Jemison, a 30-year resident of Memphis told CNN’s Ryan Young on Wednesday. “The Memphis Police Department has been saying for the longest that they need more officers. They said that’s one of the reasons why the crime is out of hand.”
Opponents of a troop deployment in Memphis who gathered Saturday at city hall argued federal resources instead should go to education, crime prevention, youth services and hospitals.
But while at least some in Tennessee welcome federal support, Oregon’s top leaders do not.
This is ‘unlawful and unwarranted’
“There is no insurrection,” Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said Saturday. “There is no threat to national security, and there is no need for military troops in our major city.”
A Sunday text message exchange between Kotek, a Democrat, and Trump assistant Natalie Harp further reflects the friction – and also raises more questions about whether footage of years-old unrest in Portland is spurring the latest federal action.
“Governor: The ICE facility in Portland was attacked again last night,” reads a text Harp wrote was “from the President” and Kotek’s office later shared via a public records request. “In fact, it, and other Federal Buildings, are being attacked on a nightly basis. We can’t have this.”
The governor responded: “Received. I know he has a busy schedule today. Will try calling him later. Thanks.”
Later Sunday, Kotek sent another message: “I just received your notice to mobilize the Oregon National guard outside of my control. I believe this is unlawful and unwarranted. You broke your promise to speak with me before taking further action against Portland. I will be in touch later.”
Within hours, Oregon and Portland officials sued the Trump administration, alleging the president’s move to federalize state National Guard personnel is “unlawful” and “baseless” and claiming the White House is using protests as long ago as 2020 in and around Portland to justify the action.
Trump sent federal law enforcement to Portland in 2020, when more than 700 officers were deployed to protect federal facilities downtown after some protests turned violent following the murder of Black father George Floyd in Minneapolis by a White police officer.
An ICE facility some 2 miles south of downtown Portland has been at the center of near-constant protests this summer, including in June when a demonstration tied to the national “No Kings” movement turned violent. Police declared a riot outside the building and made three arrests.
But since then, protests have been mostly peaceful, and residents have attested to the calm.
“This action was motivated by his desire to normalize the use of military troops for ordinary domestic law enforcement activity while also punishing politically disfavored jurisdictions like Portland, Oregon,” Oregon officials’ suit says.
“This is one city block. The city of Portland is about 145 square miles,” Portland Police Bureau Chief Bob Day said Tuesday at a news conference. “Even the events that are happening down there do not rise to the level of attention that they are receiving.”
“What’s actually happening in the response that we’re seeing, both from Portlanders and from the Portland Police Bureau, is not in line with that national narrative,” Day added.
Amid specter of the National Guard deploying to the city, tensions rose Tuesday night between law enforcement agents and anti-ICE demonstrators, as seen in video taken outside the ICE detention facility and posted to social media.
A law enforcement agent in camouflage and tactical gear appears to encounter a person before another agent tackles the person to the ground, puts them in plastic handcuffs and takes them away, the footage shows.
It’s unclear if the person or the agent made the first contact.
Federal officers carried four people into the ICE facility Tuesday night, CNN affiliate KATU witnessed. One soon was released, and it was “not immediately clear what charges, if any, they faced,” the station reported.
Six people were arrested at the facility Tuesday night, with charges including assaulting law enforcement, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement, noting one officer was hospitalized.
“This violent attacks on law enforcement officers are unacceptable,” McLaughlin said. “We will not allow Antifa domestic terrorists to deter us in our mission to make America safe, and those who try will be held accountable.”
CNN’s Andy Rose, Ryan Young and Diego Mendoza contributed to this report.
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