President Donald Trump announced this week that the National Guard will be deployed to Memphis as part of a broader anti-crime initiative, a move Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said reflects months of bipartisan coordination among federal, state and local officials confronting a surge in violence in the city.
Hagerty told Fox News Digital he has been working with Gov. Bill Lee, Sen. Marsha Blackburn and local Democrats, including Memphis Mayor Paul Young and U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, to marshal resources against what he described as a public safety crisis. Hagerty said federal partners, notably the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, have recently increased operations in Memphis and that cooperation has produced tangible arrests and disruptions.
Officials point to Operation Viper, a federal-state law enforcement cooperative that the senator said led to a significant number of arrests of wanted suspects since summer. Hagerty put the figure at about 500 arrests; multiple contemporaneous news reports had cited a lower figure, near 200, as of August. FBI Director Kash Patel, who Hagerty said ramped up the operation over the summer, has described intensified federal attention on the city.
Hagerty said the most recent phase of the operation concluded this week, which he suggested helps explain the timing of the White House announcement. He praised Young and Cohen for supporting broad enforcement efforts and said Governor Lee plans to send an additional 50 Tennessee state troopers to assist federal and local partners.
While Hagerty and some local leaders have emphasized cooperation, the announcement drew sharp criticism from Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, a Democrat, who described the federal action in a statement as an effort to "occupy Tennessee communities." Harris called the move "disappointing, anti-democratic, and [a] violation of American norms and possibly U.S. laws," and said it could chill protest and create fear in vulnerable communities.
Hagerty acknowledged potential political headwinds for local officials who back federal intervention but said most of the discussion he has had with the White House, the Department of Justice, the FBI and the governor has been focused on crime. He did not rule out that immigration enforcement could be involved in some cases, but emphasized the primary aim is to address violent crime.
The senator urged that no federal agency be off the table for the crackdown, mentioning the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the DEA as potential participants. He said the enforcement strategy was designed to "pursue the hardest of the hard-core" criminals and to provide a visible response to rising violence in neighborhoods and commercial corridors.
Trump, on the morning program "Fox & Friends," said he chose Memphis in part because of operational headwinds in other cities, including Chicago, and has previously targeted large cities on crime and immigration enforcement. Federal officials have recently sent Border Patrol personnel to Chicago as part of related initiatives, according to administration statements.
Local reactions have been mixed. Mayor Young told a Memphis television affiliate he supports collaborative work with state and federal law enforcement as the most effective way to produce results. Fox News Digital reached out to Young, Cohen and the FBI for additional comment; responses were not immediately available.
As the next phase is organized, officials will need to coordinate the timing, scope and rules of engagement for federal forces working alongside state and local partners. Hagerty said the White House is prepared to provide "whatever resources we need" to address the violence, but the effort faces legal, political and logistical questions as it moves forward.
Operation Viper and related federal activity have drawn renewed attention to Memphis's homicide rate and policing challenges this year. Federal and local officials involved in the effort say their immediate objective is to remove violent offenders from the streets and to restore a sense of safety in affected neighborhoods, while critics warn that federal deployments risk escalating tensions and undermining local control.