National Guard troops started patrolling in Memphis, Tennessee, on Friday, even after judges stalled President Donald Trump’s plans to deploy troops to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in other states.
The troops, dressed in Guard fatigues and protective vests, with guns in their holsters, patrolled at a Bass Pro Shops store and a nearby tourist welcome center beside the Mississippi River. It was unclear how many troops have been deployed to Memphis.
Trump has sent or discussed sending troops to many cities, including Chicago; Portland, Oregon; Baltimore; Memphis, Tennessee; the District of Columbia; New Orleans; and the California cities of Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Protests have been ongoing at an ICE detention center near Chicago, where National Guard troops were seen Thursday. Two U.S. senators from Illinois say they were denied entry to the facility on Friday.
Here’s where things stand:
Violent crime a problem in Memphis
Trump announced Sept. 15 that he intended to deploy the Guard to Memphis, and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, embraced the plan to bolster law enforcement operations there.
Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat who did not request the deployment, said he hopes the task force will target violent offenders rather than scare, harass or intimidate residents.
Federal officials say agents from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, ICE and the U.S. Marshal’s service have made hundreds of arrests and issued more than 2,800 traffic citations since the task force began operating in Memphis on Sept. 29.
Illinois senators denied entry to ICE building
Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth said they were denied access Friday to the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, a site of confrontations between protesters and federal agents.
“It is appalling that two United States senators are not allowed to visit this facility,” Duckworth said. “What are you afraid of?”
The senators said they have congressional oversight authority.
“Something is going on in there they don’t want us to see,” Durbin said. “I don’t know what it is.”
Illinois deployment blocked
A federal judge on Thursday blocked the deployment of troops in Chicago for at least two weeks.
U.S. District Judge April Perry in Chicago said the Trump administration violated the 10th Amendment, which grants certain powers to states, and the 14th Amendment, which assures due process and equal protection, when he ordered National Guard troops to the city.
Perry said her order would expire Oct. 23 at 11:59 p.m. and set an Oct. 22 hearing by telephone to determine if the order should be extended for another 14 days.
“The court confirmed what we all know: There is no credible evidence of a rebellion in the state of Illinois. And no place for the National Guard in the streets of American cities like Chicago,” Gov. JB Pritzker said.
Another court battle in Oregon earlier delayed a similar troop deployment to Portland.
Lt. Cmdr. Theresa Meadows, a spokeswoman for U.S. Northern Command, said the troops sent to Portland and Chicago are “not conducting any operational activities at this time.
“Our soldiers are conducting planning and training but not engaging in any Federal Protection Mission operational activities,” she said.
Troops patrol outside Chicago
Five hundred guard members from Texas and Illinois arrived this week at a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Elwood, southwest of Chicago, and have been activated for 60 days.
They started patrolling Thursday morning behind portable fences outside the ICE Broadview facility.
A federal judge late Thursday ordered ICE to remove a separate 8-foot-tall fence outside the Broadview facility after the Village of Broadview said it illegally blocks a public street.
Also Thursday, another federal judge in Illinois temporarily ordered federal agents to wear badges and banned them from using certain riot control weapons against peaceful protesters and journalists outside the Broadview facility, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) west of Chicago.
In Chicago, federal prosecutors have obtained a grand jury indictment against a woman and man accused of using their vehicles to strike and box in a Border Patrol agent’s vehicle last Saturday.
The agent exited his car and fired five shots at Marimar Martinez, 30, who was treated at a hospital. The indictment filed Thursday formalizes charges of assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon – a vehicle. Anthony Ruiz, 21, is also charged.
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Associated Press reporters across the U.S. contributed, including Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon; Sophia Tareen and Christine Fernando in Chicago; and Josh Boak and Konstantin Toropin in Washington, D.C.
By The Associated Press
