Advocates, Faith Leaders, and Affected Tennesseans Condemned Tennessee Highway Patrol’s Collaboration with ICE Ahead of TIRRC’s Preliminary Injunction Hearing Seeking a Stop to THP’s Illegal Practices
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 22, 2026
Link to Live Stream Courtesy of Telemundo Nashville
Today, Advocates, Faith Leaders, and Affected Tennesseans Condemned Tennessee Highway Patrol’s Collaboration with ICE Ahead of TIRRC’s Preliminary Injunction Hearing Seeking a Stop to THP’s Illegal Practices
Nashville, TN — Today, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition’s lawsuit against the Tennessee Highway Patrol was in federal court for the first time. This lawsuit challenges THP’s practice of conducting widespread and racially targeted pretextual traffic stops in order to facilitate ICE arrests. The legal team representing TIRRC, which includes attorneys from the Policing Project at NYU School of Law, is seeking a preliminary injunction requiring THP leaders to comply with the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
Ahead of the hearing, advocates, faith leaders, and community members shared their stories and experiences of the harm caused by THP and other law enforcement agency’s partnership with ICE.
Viridiana Marin, East Tennessee Organizer from Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition opened the press conference saying, “Regardless of race or immigration status, we are all guaranteed the rights granted to us in the Constitution. Yet right now these rights are being violated by the ongoing collaboration between Tennessee Highway Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That is why TIRRC filed this lawsuit along with the Policing Project of NYC School of Law. As an organization, we are committed to advocating for and defending our community in the streets and in the courts. Today our organization is seeking a preliminary injunction requiring Tennessee Highway Patrol’s leadership to comply with the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution so that THP will prohibit their troopers from deliberately and systematically making traffic stops with the ulterior purpose of conducting immigration investigations.”
Bill and Kaki Friskics-Warren, Retired Clergy in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), also spoke, Kaki said, “We have driven friends to immigration court in Memphis because they wanted to be true to each step outlined in the immigration process, only to clinch in terror each time a Highway Patrol Car passed us on I-40 or patrolled Memphis’s streets. They know that THP has become an arm of ICE. I know that Tennessee’s roads aren’t safer when officers are pulled away from the duties they were trained for.”
“We’ve documented dozens of traffic stops involving THP and ICE in Memphis, TN through our work with Vecindarios 901,” shared Maria Oceja, Founder of Vecindarios 901 in Memphis. “Pretextual traffic stops for tinted windows, broken taillights, and covered license plates are the primary ways that THP is targeting people in Memphis. THP has also been responsible for an unknown number of deaths through high-speed chases in Memphis – the death toll is definitely above 3. The Tennessee Highway Patrol is also rarely patrolling highways – instead, they can be found in the heart of Memphis working class, immigrant neighborhoods, lurking in the back-streets, targeting immigrant workers on their way to work or on their way home from work.”
Ashley Warbington, Volunteer with Music City Migra Watch, also shared the trauma sees regularly when traffic stops turn into arrests. “Immigration enforcement no longer requires an ICE agent to be standing there. It can begin with a simple traffic stop and lead to arrest, detention, deportation, or even death. We cannot let people become numbers. Behind every detention is a person. Behind every person is a family. And behind every family is a community. We will continue to document.We will continue to verify. We will continue to show up. And we will continue to make sure that what happens in our communities does not happen in the dark.”
A similar sentiment about the human toll was shared by Alejandra Hodge, TIRRC Board Member and Community Advocate in Cleveland, TN. “ Those numbers represent policy. But they also represent people. They represent mothers and fathers. Workers. Church members. Neighbors. Children waiting for someone to come home. And Cleveland knows this reality personally. Earlier this year, a member of our community, Alejandro, died while in ICE custody. Whatever someone's position on immigration policy may be, a death in government custody should cause us to stop and ask serious questions. Questions about care, accountability, and the responsibility we entrust to institutions when a human life is placed in their hands.”
Hodge also spoke as a local faith leader saying, “I find another consequence particularly painful.
I have watched people become afraid to gather, afraid to go to work, afraid to drive, afraid to worship. I have heard from people who wonder whether going to church is worth the risk of leaving their homes. Think about what that means. People are becoming afraid to participate in the very institutions that create community: our churches, workplaces, schools, neighborhoods, and public spaces. This is bigger than an immigration debate. It is a question about what kind of community we are building together. I believe our communities should be places where accountability and compassion can coexist. Where law and human dignity can coexist.”
While today’s hearing has concluded, the legal teams at TIRRC and the Policing Project at NYC School of Law await a decision from the judge in the coming days.
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About Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition
Since its founding in 2003, the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) has grown into a model for immigrant rights organizations in the Southeast and throughout the United States with individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds, faiths, and ethnicities. It is nationally recognized for multiethnic, multigenerational coalition building, effective legislative advocacy, and award-winning communications initiatives. Learn more at www.tnimmigrant.org
