Thursday evening, over 400 miles away from the National Guard deployment in Memphis, Tennessee, University of Tennessee students marched on campus in opposition of the federal troops.
President Donald Trump sent in the National Guard on a 29-day patrol of Memphis seeking to prevent violent crime in the city. Gov. Bill Lee accepted the federal patrol along with senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty.
Over two dozen students gathered around on the pedestrian walkway, holding signs bearing phrases like, “No National Guard in our back yard.” Clad in Grizzlies and Tigers merch, they marched down the pedestrian walkway, took a right just past the seal and headed for the Torchbearer statue. On the way, they filled the air with chants.
They spoke against the occupation, describing it as a short-term fix for longer-standing, socio-economic issues.
“We’re a city with a lot of poverty,” Luke Hatler, a sophomore studying urban planning, and the event organizer, said. “We’re not doing the things to alleviate the poverty, which is like youth jobs programs, or affordable housing projects, or, like, nutrition programs or better funding for the public schools or like, better public transportation. And we’re just not doing that.”
Organizers compared the current administration to that of Reagan and described its actions to be similar to the war on drugs. They argued the deployment went hand in hand with racism and classism.
“I mean, this is a tale … as old as time, the war on crime, it doesn’t work if you just heavily police black and brown cities and areas, communities. It just doesn’t work,” Layla Moore, a senior studying political science and one of the speakers, said.
Protestors also condemned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deportations in the city.
“The main thing that I’m very worried about is not even so much the National Guard, but ICE, because one of the main federal organizations, part of the Memphis Safe Task Force … is ICE. And they’re rounding up our neighbors,” Hatler said.
He said that these enforcement actions target individuals who are contributing members of the local community.
“These are good, kind, hardworking people, you know, pillars of our community. They’re improving our community, and we’re rounding them up,” Hatler said.
Jack Dempsey, a freshman studying public affairs, also shared concerns about the broader climate of fear that he thinks federal immigration enforcement has created.
“I remember, I had one Hispanic friend back in earlier this year when there were ICE patrols in Nashville, for example. He told me … that he was literally afraid to go outside because he was afraid that he was going to be disappeared by his own government,” Dempsey said.
He went on to express alarm about the government’s role in fostering fear among its own citizens.
“I think any government that perpetuates a sense of fear in its own citizens cannot be accepted. We have to take measures, we have to protest these things as they come up because they are actions of a despotism, not one of a democracy,” Dempsey said.
Students protest the National Guards Deployment in Memphis, Oct.23, 2025
The event was co-sponsored by the Progressive Students Association and Young Democrats. Hatler brought attention to the socioeconomic issues plaguing Memphis.
“We are a city that definitely struggles with poverty, and I think it could be fairly easily alleviated with social programs,” Hatler said. “It’s like as if we’re drowning and the state government is like sitting in a boat right next to us, and then we try to stitch ourselves together a life jacket, and the second we get it together, they snatch it away from us.”
The demonstration caught the attention of other students on campus who did not already know it was happening, including Charles Wallace, a freshman studying accounting.
“I didn’t hear about it beforehand,” Wallace said. “But, I mean, I saw them on ped walkway and had to follow them down.”
Nandi Mofya, a junior studying philosophy, also saw the demonstration and came to listen to the speakers standing in front of the Torchbearer statue, expressing her support for the students organizing the march.
“I think it’s beautiful that people are allowed to come together and speak for the things they believe in. I believe that is the Volunteer way,” Mofya said.
Students protest the National Guards Deployment in Memphis, Oct.23, 2025
