Immigrant advocates seek immediate halt to highway patrol traffic stops conducted in tandem with ICE

Immigrant advocates went to federal court Tuesday seeking an immediate order blocking the Tennessee Highway Patrol from conducting traffic stops in tandem with federal immigration agents.

In its federal lawsuit, the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition and seven Tennessee taxpayers alleged the THP is violating state law and the U.S. Constitution by making traffic stops of motorists suspected of being noncitizens solely based on their ethnic or racial appearance and then allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — riding along or stationed nearby — to demand immigration papers and detain drivers.

“The THP is using its traffic stop powers to help ICE do something that the Supreme Court has forbidden: to conduct ‘roving patrol[s]’ in which officers stop motorists on roads in the interior of the United States to check immigration status absent any substantial reason to think they lack status,” read their motion for a preliminary injunction blocking the joint traffic stops.

State attorneys defending the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security argued in court filings that state troopers have only engaged in legal traffic stops, based on probable cause of a traffic or criminal violation, and defended the cooperative effort between state troopers and ICE agents.

“Interagency law enforcement collaboration is not taboo,” they wrote in legal filings. State attorneys urged the court to reject the “extraordinary demand” that THP cease cooperative efforts with ICE . “THP’s collaboration with federal counterparts makes Tennessee safer,” they wrote.

Immigrant rights group sues Tennessee Highway Patrol over motorist stops

The state attorneys also raised procedural objections, arguing the plaintiffs lack legal standing to file the lawsuit, the federal court lacks jurisdiction to hear the lawsuit and the state has sovereign immunity against the legal claims.

In court on Tuesday, Assistant Attorney General Samantha Morris argued that ICE agents riding along with state troopers was not a constitutional violation, noting that interagency collaborations are common. Morris compared the practice to bringing drug-sniffing K-9 dogs on patrol to deploy when troopers conducting stops then have reasonable suspicion of potential drug violations.

Michael Holly, who represents the plaintiffs, said the comparison was apt “in a way.” Except, he said, a “drug dog doesn’t have a salary or an agenda.”

U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger told attorneys Tuesday she hoped to “issue a fairly quick decision.”

The lawsuit was filed May 18, about a year after the THP and ICE conducted a week-long operation they dubbed “Operation Flood the Zone” focused on one Nashville neighborhood with a large immigrant population.

Dashcam and bodyworn camera videos obtained by a consortium of investigative news outlets later revealed troopers made pejorative remarks about their targets, described the Nashville operation as “hunting’ time,” competed among designated teams of ICE officers and troopers to make the most arrests and marked detainees’ arms with sharpies to indicate which team could take credit for the arrests.  

Questioned months later by state lawmakers about alleged misconduct during the operation, THP Colonel Matt Perry said the agency has since rejected overtures from ICE to conduct future joint operations. 

The Tennessee Highway Patrol, however, continues to work in tandem with ICE and other federal agencies as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force, convened last September via an executive order from President Donald Trump. In that role, the THP has conducted tens of thousands of traffic stops in Memphis. Neither the task force nor the THP has released data on how many of those traffic stops led to immigration arrests.

The injunction sought by the immigrant advocates and taxpayers, if granted, would prevent the THP from conducting traffic stops in tandem with ICE in its role as a member of the Memphis Safe Task Force.