This story was produced in collaboration with the Institute for Public Service Reporting.
Maria’s life changed radically when the Memphis Safe Task Force came to town. She stopped going to work. She skipped trips to church and the grocery store. Friends now take her children, all U.S. citizens, to school.
“Estoy en prisión pero en casa,” she says in her native Spanish.
I am a prisoner in my own home.
The immigrant from Central America isn’t taking any chances since her husband, Jose, was arrested during a routine immigration check-in in August. Since then, the family has been in self-imposed lockdown.
Community organizer Carlos Ochoa says many parents are now in the same situation.
“We see parents afraid to leave their homes. We see children missing school because safety feels uncertain,’’ said Ochoa.
Even with a work permit, 37-year-old Laura, an asylum seeker from Central America, isn’t leaving her house either.
“I haven't sent my daughter to school for several days. It's because I'm afraid. Afraid of being arrested on the way between home and school,” Laura said.
Her daughter has missed school, Laura says, because she’s worried about being detained.
As Latino students begin missing classes, local education officials find their own mandate at odds with federal authorities.
To help parents avoid Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, school board members voted to expand school bus services in some areas.
But there are other consequences. Hispanic workers are jeopardizing their health by skipping doctor appointments, advocates say.
“We see workers avoiding medical care because survival demands invisibility,’’ Ochoa said.
Jessica Miller, an organizing member of the Immigrant Pantry, a volunteer-driven group that provides food supplies to immigrants in Memphis, says hunger is another problem as families avoid the grocery store.
“Before the task force came in, we were only making like eight deliveries a week on average," Miller said. “And once the task force came in, our request line grew, and we have right now, we have over 100 people that are waiting on food.”
Fears of arrests or harassment are not overstated, say immigration advocates — even for those with legal status.
ICE and Border Patrol agents have teamed up with state and local law enforcement, making traffic stops a major source of arrests.
During the first seven months of Trump's second presidency, ICE arrested more than 400 immigrants in Memphis. Jose was one of them.
In his absence, Maria had considered staying with the couple’s U.S.-born children until they graduated high school. Then she’d rejoin Jose in Central America, she figured.
But since the task force’s arrival, she fears being arrested, leaving her three teenagers without a legal guardian.
“I wouldn’t want that for them,” she said.
Her eldest, Liliana, a college-bound senior, doesn’t plan to leave Memphis.
“It will be a waste for me going … and basically having to start over with the whole new curriculum, and knowing that the degree over there is going to be basically worth nothing over here,” she said.
But without her family’s support, her life here would be way more complicated.
“What I'm more necessarily worried about is, like, where I'm going to stay,” she said.
As Jose’s case moves through the system, the constant presence of federal agents in his family’s neighborhood has brought Maria’s life to a full stop.
“For us, this is no longer the American Dream, Maria said. “This has become the American nightmare.”