During the government shutdown, food pantries got slammed as federal workers went unpaid and SNAP benefits were paused. But volunteers at the Immigrant Pantry point to a completely different reason for their recent surge from serving eight families a week to serving 180.
“Hunger didn’t suddenly increase,” said Jessica Miller, who helps run the agency that serves undocumented families in Memphis. “Fear exploded.”
It’s the kind of fear that community leaders — and now Congressman Steve Cohen — say has turned Memphis’ immigrant neighborhoods into places where people are too frightened to drive, too frightened to send their children to school, too frightened to buy formula or diapers.
Cohen is now formally asking the Trump administration to pull ICE out of Memphis, arguing that the agency is terrorizing families who “aren’t part of our crime problem.”
“They’ve decided they’re gonna get anybody that’s in the country improperly, and that’s wrong,” Cohen said Monday, Nov. 17 on the House floor. “It shouldn’t be part of this surge they’ve got to help us with our crime problem. Hispanics, immigrants are not part of our crime problem. And if they were, you’d go after one or two of them — not so many.”
‘We had families pulled out of cars. Parents didn’t come home.’
At a Tuesday, Nov. 18, news conference, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris once again invited street-level organizations to discuss ways occupation is impacting their neighbors.
When operations began, Miller said, the danger felt immediate and everywhere: routine traffic stops “turned into detentions,” workplaces “became traps,” and homes were suddenly missing “a parent, a provider, or a loved one.” People were taken, she said, “without warning, without explanation, without time to even say goodbye.”
The pantry does not ask about immigration status. Asked who Immigrant Pantry serves, Miller shared the answer she routinely gives — delivered as if she had a name and face for every story:
- “We are serving the young mother who was pulled over on the way to her newborn daughter’s first doctor’s appointment… Her husband was taken on the side of the road. She was left alone holding her one-week-old child.”
- “We are serving the grandmother now caring for four children after her son was sent back to a country he hasn’t seen since he was their age.
- “We are serving a mother who fed her infant sugar water for two days because she couldn’t afford formula — and was terrified that if she left for work she may never come home to those children.”
“This is who we serve,” she said. “Families, children, human beings who deserve safety, dignity and peace — not terror. We just need to give them food. We do not want someone to be arrested from our parking lot for coming to get help.”
Cohen: ICE is making Memphis less safe, not more
In Washington, Cohen told Congress that at a recent town hall, concerns about ICE and the agency’s tactics were loud, relentless and terrifying.
“They were very concerned about the people from ICE with masks on their face, mistreating people, dragging them out of cars, stomping on their heads and arresting them,” Cohen said. “We’re talking about American citizens and (ICE) did it in error. (Constituents) were also concerned about the immigrants who were taken out of our community who do so much good in our community.
“Get to the business of taking care of Memphis and not eliminating and deporting people who help our society and our economy,” Cohen concluded.
Negrete: Latino women afraid to report domestic violence
If fear is choking off access to food and schooling, Inez Negrete says it’s also erasing survivors of violent crime from the justice system entirely.
Negrete, founder and executive director of Casa Luz, a Memphis-based nonprofit that supports Spanish-speaking victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, said the current climate has reversed years of fragile trust built between immigrant families and law enforcement.
Negrete emphasized that a drop in police reports does not mean violence is falling — it means victims are too terrified to call for help.
“During times of tension or crisis, like COVID, we saw violent cases increase even as reporting decreased,” she said. “That is what we are seeing now. Underreporting is not safety. It’s a sign that people feel hunted.
“Offenders often exploit the barriers we face — language, discrimination, fear of deportation,” she continued. “That fear has always created a gap of mistrust with police, and now it is wider than ever.”
“Immigrant victims are extremely reluctant to seek help, even when their lives are in danger,” she said. “With the Memphis Safe Task Force, that fear has intensified. People are staying silent, and that means criminals remain free in our city.”
‘This is not charity. This is solidarity. This is community defense.’
As Miller closed out her remarks during the news conference, she provided comfort and consolation to Memphis’ immigrant community while challenging Memphians to step up and help. Her lightly edited remarks:
“Every week, volunteers across Memphis fill cars with groceries, diapers, formula, and 60-pound boxes of food. We show up quietly, safely, and respectfully, with no questions about status, no paperwork, no judgment, and no conditions.
“This is not charity. This is solidarity. It is community defense. It is Memphis taking care of Memphis when our most vulnerable neighbors are being failed by the systems meant to protect them.
“To immigrant families in our city: we see you, we will keep coming, and you do not have to choose between safety and feeding your children.”
For more about Immigrant Pantry, visit www.indivisiblememphis.org. For more about Casa Luz: https://www.facebook.com/CasaLuzMemphis. To donate via MICAH: https://www.micahmemphis.org/
