President Donald Trump said Friday that he's planning to send federal law enforcement and the National Guard into Memphis, Tennessee, to lower crime in the city following his surge into Washington, D.C., over the last month.
"We’re going to Memphis. Memphis is deeply troubled," Trump said in an interview on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” in New York. "The mayor is happy. He’s a Democrat. And the governor of Tennessee, the governor is happy. We’re gonna fix that just like we did Washington."
The president then raised the issue of lowering crime in New Orleans and Chicago, the latter city's crime rate being a frequent talking point of his.
"I can fix Chicago, much bigger than D.C., but we can bring in the military," Trump said. "We can bring in the National Guard. We’ll do what we have to do."
Trump said he decided on Memphis after someone on the board of Fedex, which is headquartered in that city, brought up the crime rate there to him.
"We’re going to Memphis." Trump said. "I’m just announcing that now, and we’ll straighten that out — National Guard and anybody else we need. And by the way, we’ll bring in the military, too, if we need it."
An ICE official told NBC News that Memphis law enforcement officials do not cooperate with the immigration enforcement agency and the city is therefore considered to be a “sanctuary city.” ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the agency was planning to step up immigration enforcement in Memphis.
FBI data shows that violent crimes have hovered at around 15,000 to 16,000 a year in Memphis in the last five years, marking an increase of several thousand from a decade ago. However, violent crime in Memphis has declined in the last two years.
“Overall crime is at a 25-year low, with robbery, burglary, and larceny also reaching 25-year lows. Murder is at a six-year low, aggravated assault at a five-year low, and sexual assault at a twenty-year low," according to a Memphis Police Department statement from Tuesday.
A report from January stated that between October and December of last year, there were 447 violent offenses, including 11 homicides, by undocumented immigrants in Tennessee. In Shelby County, where Memphis is located, there were 59 reports of violent and nonviolent criminal offenses involving undocumented immigrants.
Republican Gov. Bill Lee said in a statement Friday that he is grateful for Trump’s support and was expected to speak to the president Friday afternoon to discuss details of the plan. He said that he has been in constant contact with the Trump administration to develop a multi-phased strategy to combat crime in Memphis.
“The next phase will include a comprehensive mission with the Tennessee National Guard, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Memphis Police Department, and other law enforcement agencies, and we are working closely with the Trump Administration to determine the most effective role for each of these agencies to best serve Memphians,” he said.
The office of Memphis Mayor Paul Young didn’t immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Jerri Green, a Memphis City councilwoman who’s running for governor as a Democrat next year, said in a statement shared on X that Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops is “both unnecessary and wasteful.”
“Bringing in federal troops doesn’t solve the root causes of crime,” she said. “It doesn’t put food on the table, create good-paying jobs, expand mental health services, or give kids safe places to learn and grow.”
Pastor Keith Norman of First Baptist Church Broad in Memphis attributed a decline in crime over the last two years in part to an increased presence by the state highway patrol. He said sending the National Guard to Memphis would be “an overreach.”
“The National Guard is also a moderately traumatic memory for many Memphians who will remember the National Guard's presence in 1968 following the assassination of Dr. King and again in 1978 during a civil service strike involving the Fire Department and eventually the Police Department, as well,” Norman said.
Trump acknowledged in an interview Friday that he has “more power” in D.C., whose officials share authority with the federal government, and said the administration has had a positive relationship with Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser.
“We’ve had a great relationship," Trump said. "Everybody’s happy, and the mayor was not in favor of it at first … and then she saw the results, and everyone’s going up and thanking her. We have no crime anymore.”
Trump’s emergency order authorizing a federal takeover of the D.C. police force for 30 days expired this week, and would have required Congress to extend it further under a law that grants the city some autonomy.
Bowser said federal law enforcement personnel would remain in the nation’s capital, but the Metropolitan Police Department would stop transporting people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
While the city would return to the “status quo,” she said, “federal police officers are going to be in the district … federal police officers can enhance the public safety mission of MPD.”
Bowser said last month that the increase of federal forces in the nation's capital did lead to a drop in crime.
“We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city,” she said. In the first 20 days of the federal takeover, there had been an 87% drop in carjackings compared with the same period last year. The data cited also showed a 45% decrease in violent crime and a 15% fall in crime overall in the district from the same period last year.
