Since Donald Trump was sworn into office for a second time, immigration arrests have surged nationwide as his administration carries out an unprecedented mass detention and deportation agenda.
In Tennessee, the number of people arrested and detained began to climb almost immediately after the president’s January 2025 inauguration.
In total, the number of immigrant arrests and detentions multiplied nearly four-fold in Tennessee during the president’s first year in office, compared to the final year of the Biden administration, according to data the Tennessee Lookout analyzed from the Deportation Data Project at U.C. Berkeley and U.C.L.A. The Deportation Data Project obtained the data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, through Freedom of Information Act litigation.
At the current pace of arrests and detentions, ICE is on track to arrest and detain an even greater number of immigrants in Tennessee this year.
Tennessee’s Republican leaders have largely applauded the heightened immigration enforcement activities across the state
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Crossville Republican, openly talked about working with Trump’s White House to pass a slate of legislation targeting immigrants without legal status, calling it a “model for the nation.” Several laws prevent immigrants without legal status from accessing the limited public benefits that immigrants without legal status are entitled to, such as public health clinic access.
“Tennessee will not become a sanctuary state for illegal immigration,” Sexton said in a news release last touting recent ICE deportations. “We will ensure our public benefits are only for those who are citizens and who come into our country legally.”
On May 5, 2025, as part of an immigration dragnet in South Nashville, Immigration agents gather at the Department of Homeland Security’s office in Nashville. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Among state Republican actions was establishing a first-of-its-kind Centralized Immigration Enforcement Bureau in Tennessee whose mission is to “oversee state and local collaboration with federal immigration authorities.”
At the same time, immigrant advocates have sprung into action to provide legal services, organize public protests, organize aid to families left behind by the detentions and train volunteers to monitor and document ICE arrests in real time.
“The Trump administration has aggressively imposed a brutal campaign of mass detention and deportation, sparing no one,” Spring Miller, senior director of legal strategy at the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition wrote in a recent op-ed highlighting the impact of ICE detentions on mothers and children.
Brenda Perez talks to community volunteers at an April 18 training held by Migra Watch on monitoring ICE interactions. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Community volunteers wait outside the Department of Homeland Security facility in Nashville as they observe vehicles entering and exiting. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Ashley Warbington leads chants at a Jan. 10. 2025 protest of Immigration and Customs Enforcement after ICE officers in Minneapolis shot and killed Renee Good. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Hundreds of the Tennessee arrests during Trump’s second term stemmed from large-scale, targeted operations highlighted in ICE news releases.
ICE announced 196 arrests in Nashville during a weeklong traffic stop dragnet in May 2025 dubbed “Operation Flood the Zone,” conducted in partnership with the Tennessee Highway Patrol. On May 5, 2025, as part of an immigration dragnet in South Nashville, Immigration agents gather at the Department of Homeland Security’s office in Nashville. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)Federal immigration agents remove a man from an apartment complex in South Nashville on April 28, 2026. The agents were met by protesters. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)ICE agents arrested 7 undocumented people when they showed up for traffic court in Robertson County. Wo mothers were arrested along with othersPhotographs by John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout
In May 2026, ICE in partnership with Sevierville police and sheriffs arrested and detained 117 immigrants in east Tennessee in “Operation Smoky Mountain.” In the initial weeks after Trump created the crime-fighting Memphis Safe Task Force in October ICE data shows more than 400 arrests and detentions of immigrants in that city.
Partnerships between ICE and local police and sheriffs have also driven increasing immigration arrests that have taken place largely out of public view.
Before Trump retook office, just two Tennessee sheriffs had entered into so-called 287(g) agreements with the federal government to cooperate with the federal government in immigration enforcement.
Today there are more than 120.
While federal officials have pledged to target the “worst of the worst” in immigration enforcement, data shows the majority of immigrants detained in Tennessee since the beginning of 2025 had not been convicted of any crime. Two-thirds of those detained had either no criminal mark on their record or faced pending charges.
While immigration arrests and detentions are occurring across Tennessee, Memphis has seen the largest number, followed by Nashville/Davidson County, Knox County, Rutherford County and Hamilton County.
