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Earlier this week, ICE agents raided a night spot in Memphis that is popular with many Latino residents and detained more than a hundred and twenty people. Officials say they had a warrant to search for drugs and illegal gambling. Erika Konig with the Institute for Public Service Reporting and member station WKNO reports that it was one of the agency's largest mass arrests this year.
ERIKA KONIG, BYLINE: It was close to 1 a.m. Sunday when agents flooded into El Corralon, a restaurant and bar in Berclair, a Hispanic neighborhood.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
KONIG: This employee asked NPR not to use her name because she fears jeopardizing a pending immigration case. She says patrons were told to put their hands up, that they were all being arrested.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
KONIG: "Men and women were screaming, almost fainting and crying," she says.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
KONIG: "The mothers were screaming for their children or praying out loud." Then the questions started.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
KONIG: "One by one, they were asked about their papers and work permits." This employee from Central America keeps immigration documents with her. She and three others were released at the scene. Other patrons were not so fortunate. A relative of this employee was among those arrested.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
KONIG: She's now taking care of that relative's four children, including a 2-year-old, she says. The father was previously deported. The immigrant rights group Vecindarios 901 says the parents of at least 16 children were taken into custody in this raid. Data show this was one of the largest, single-day ICE arrests in the country this year. In a press release, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin is quoted as saying those arrested included child abusers, drug traffickers and violent assailants. So far, the agency identified only five people in custody but was silent about the remaining 116. Community activists, such as Gisela Guerrero, question the need to arrest so many others.
GISELA GUERRERO: So any person is meant to be innocent until proven guilty. Any person is meant to have a right against illegal search and seizure and detainment, and everybody has a right to due process. And all of those rights are being violated in this case.
KONIG: ICE agents used search warrants from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to enter the bar looking for drugs and gambling equipment. Lucas Cameron-Vaughn with the American Civil Liberties Union says that should not give ICE the power to arrest an entire club full of people.
LUCAS CAMERON-VAUGHN: And then ICE and immigration enforcement swooping in and trying to ride on that authority that they have when there's actually no clear legal authority for ICE to do so.
KONIG: The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has not responded to requests for comment. Since the raid, community members have been delivering food and support to families with missing parents. So far, the El Corralon employee, now taking care of four children, only knows that their mother was sent to a detention center in Alabama.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
KONIG: "Without a cellphone or a memorized phone number, she hasn't been able to reach her," she says. As far as she knows, the mother still thinks that the employee was also arrested that night.
For NPR News, I'm Erika Konig in Memphis. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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