Allen Shao King, legal director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, speaks at a Thursday press conference. Credit: Sarah Grace Taylor / Nashville Banner In five days of swarming state roads to find undocumented immigrants, the Tennessee Highway Patrol said it has made 468 immigration-probing traffic stops as of early Thursday, resulting in nearly 100 U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detentions. As community organizations scramble to identify residents forcibly removed from Nashville and — in at least most cases — shuttled to detention facilities in Louisiana, where they face the threat of deportation, an end to the sweeping traffic stops may be in sight. Multiple sources close to the situation tell the Banner that the operation is likely to end this weekend, around May 10, a week after the federal government began targeting migrants in an unknown number of Middle Tennessee counties. According to THP, fewer than 10 troopers have been assigned to the ICE-led operation, and have made arrests including DUIs, five felony-wanted persons and two drug arrests. Out of the nearly 500 traffic stops, THP arrested 12 people, while ICE detained 94 for immigration reasons. Of those detained by ICE, the agency said there are at least two known violent criminals, including an alleged Tren de Aragua member and child sex predator, and an alleged MS-13 member who ICE said is wanted for murder in El Salvador. Identities of those two arrests have not been shared, so neither their alleged crimes, supposed gang affiliations or countries of origin are verifiable, and neither state nor federal officials have provided evidence. ICE also claims an unknown number of “suspected” MS-13 and Tren de Aragua members have been detained during the operation, but did not provide any information about how it determined this. Tennessee has had one reported case of Tren de Aragua-related sex trafficking, but reports of so-called migrant crime associated with the two gangs have also been exaggerated in the current political climate, including by the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, who cited Tren de Aragua in a budget ask last fall, despite no known members or incidents in Tennessee. As the Latino community in and around Nashville reels from the onslaught of removals, organizations like the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) are still working to identify who was taken, where they are being detained and how to provide legal aid. “Our full focus right now is making sure that families and friends are reunited with their loved ones and that everyone affected has their fair day in court,” said TIRRC’s Legal Director Allen Shao King. “It is important to remember the foundational American principle that people are innocent until proven guilty and similarly, just because someone has been detained by ICE, does not mean that they do not have a pathway to legal status.” So far, community groups told the Banner they have identified 62 of the people detained, and TIRRC has fielded around 800 calls to its legal hotline. The Belonging Fund, a mutual aid effort to help those impacted by the raids, had raised $200,000 in four days as of Thursday, with over $30,000 distributed to families. While reports of conditions in detention facilities have varied, in part because Nashvillians held have been transferred to an unknown number of different facilities, one of TIRRC’s clients described their facility as being “20 people packed inside [a room] with only one toilet and no privacy.” Complaints of potential racial profiling in the traffic stops have also been growing since the stops began over the weekend. THP has denied any racial profiling, doubling down on that defense in an emailed statement Thursday. “Troopers continue to follow Tennessee Code Annotated § 7-68-105. In cases where individuals were found to be in the country illegally, those matters were handled separately by ICE in accordance with federal law,” a spokesperson wrote. “THP’s role is to enforce Tennessee traffic laws fairly and consistently, and our troopers continue to make lawful stops, based solely on traffic infractions, in an effort to keep Tennesseans safe. We do not enter neighborhoods or stop vehicles based on who someone is — we stop based on what they do behind the wheel,” the statement continued. TIRRC and other groups like Advocates for Immigrant Rights, Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors and Community Legal Center have also sent a letter to ICE and Gov. Bill Lee asking for information on where people are being detained and trying to make sure that those in custody are able to access legal counsel before making “consequential decisions” about their rights. According to TIRRC, the groups have not received any response to the letter — which also requests a list of names and A-numbers, or “Alien Registration Numbers,” assigned by Homeland Security, for those detained — contributing to concerns about due process. “ICE, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, and Governor Lee are terrorizing our communities,” TIRRC Executive Director Lisa Sherman Luna said at a news conference Thursday. “They are kidnapping our people off the street based on nothing but the color of their skin. This is an injustice and a tragedy and a violation of our constitutional rights.” Sarah Grace Taylor is statehouse reporter for the Banner. A Nashville native, she spent several years covering local government in Tennessee, including at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, before moving to the West Coast where she covered city hall for The Seattle Times and California politics for POLITICO. More by Sarah Grace Taylor