(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump signed a memorandum of understanding that will send the National Guard to Memphis as part of a task force to combat crime.
“This team will deploy the full powers of federal law enforcement agencies … to restore public safety and get dangerous career criminals off our streets,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “In 2024, Memphis had the highest violent crime rate, the highest property crime rate, and the third highest murder rate of any city in the nation.”
Flanked by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and the state’s U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, Trump said, “A president should have stepped up long ago and saved these cities.”
“It’s not that I wanted to do it,” Trump said. “Somebody had to do it and we’re doing it in a big way.”
The Memphis Safe Task Force will also include the FBI; Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Homeland Security; and the U.S. Marshals, according to the memorandum.
Trump said state and local officials requested federal assistance.
“I have been in office for seven years,” Lee said. “I’m tired of crime holding the great city of Memphis back.”
Memphis Mayor Paul Young said he did not ask for the National Guard.
“However, the decision has been made,” Young said in a post on social media. “As your Mayor, my commitment is to work strategically to ensure this happens in a way that truly benefits and strengthens our community.”
The plan for bringing in the National Guard has not been announced. The District of Columbia National Guard website shows that 172 members of the Tennessee National Guard are in Washington helping with a deployment there.
State Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, said Monday the city should see the deployment as “1,000 pieces of human capital ro free labor coming to the city.” He said if the “experiment works, he will ask the federal government to give Memphis the same budget it took to bring the National Guard there.”
“Otherwise, we’ll be right back in the same situation again,” Parkinson said.
Republicans have praised the decision to deploy the National Guard.
“This shouldn’t be a partisan issue; this should be something that is our primary goal,” Hagerty said. “Certainly, I hope to see Memphis become the safest city in America.”
