ICE Detains Over 120 in Memphis Cantina Raid as Gambling Probe Expands
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 6
ICE Detains Over 120 in Memphis Cantina Raid as Gambling Probe Expands
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 6
Summary
More than 120 people were detained after federal agents raided El Corralón in Memphis last Sunday, turning a cantina investigation into one of Tennessee’s largest undocumented-immigrant sweeps this year.
ICE agents had targeted the venue over illegal gambling machines and drugs while seeking owner Marco Sabillon-Urbina, a Honduran immigrant, but detained people found to be in the country illegally.
Berclair residents had reported drones, suspicious vans and unfamiliar patrons around the cantina in recent weeks, signaling a broader operation before the raid.
Memphis immigrant advocates said the sweep deepened fear in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood already strained by a separate federal anti-crime task force that has also targeted immigrants.
The operation underscores ICE’s broader escalation of enforcement nationwide, with local criminal probes increasingly overlapping with immigration arrests.