MEMPHIS — The alert went out to volunteers at about 8 p.m. on a Friday: a woman hiding in a closet with her twin toddlers was on the phone to a community hotline unsure what to do as dozens of federal and local law enforcement officers converged outside, demanding entry.
Yuleiny Escobar, a volunteer for Vecindarios 901, which operates the hotline, hustled over to the woman’s home, located in the same heavily Latino Berclair neighborhood as her own.
A tow truck driver blocked the road leading to the house at the request of law enforcement, blaring the pro-police anthem, “Bad Boys.” By the time Escobar reached the home, a Border Patrol officer and a U.S. Marshal each held a toddler in one arm as their mother was placed inside an unmarked SUV. Holes in the home’s windows marked entry points for chemical agents that had been thrown inside to force the family out, neighbors told Escobar…