An illegal gambling club in Memphis, Tennessee has led to over a hundred arrests, with immigration officers apprehending 121 people in the process.
Memphis Nightclub Raid Results in 121 ICE Arrests
The raid led by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was carried out on El Corralón in the Berclair neighborhood in Memphis at 1 am on August 30, with law enforcement looking for illegal gambling operations at the location of a nightclub.
ICE agents moved swiftly, cutting the music, heading for the slot machines available on-site, and rounding up patrons on the dance floor.
At this point, agents began conducting checks regarding people’s immigration status, with those who had failed to provide proof of their immigration status taken into custody.
However, raiding a location, even if it offers illegal gambling, and walking away with 121 cases of undocumented immigrants is a suspicious figure that has already drawn due criticism.
The Institute for Public Service Reporting Memphis, Lucas Cameron-Vaughn of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee questioned whether the illegal gambling angle was just an excuse to try to carry out immigration-related arrests.
Nature of Warrants Questioned by Defense Attorneys
The operation was dubbed Operation Corral Light by the New Orleans office of ICE. The operation was launched on the back of an investigation carried out by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which specifically petitioned ICE to help identify one Marco Sabillion-Urbina, a Honduran national suspected of running criminal activities out of the raided venue.
The warrants specifically targeted drugs, cash, and illegal gambling devices, but ICE also conducted immigration arrests, with only five of the 121 people detained having any criminal histories released by the police.
More criticism has poured in on the arrests, with defense attorneys emphasizing that the warrants would only allow ICE to detain people who are directly and provably linked to people conducting criminal business at the venue.
Vaughn also questioned whether the warrants going after the illegal gambling operations were a sufficient legal basis to also target people over their immigration status, despite the presence of ICE agents.
An illegal gambling club in Memphis, Tennessee has led to over a hundred arrests, with immigration officers apprehending 121 people in the process. Memphis Nightclub Raid Results in 121 ICE Arrests The raid led by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was carried out on El Corralón in the Berclair neighborhood in Memphis at