Many communities in Charlotte, North Carolina, were reeling after federal Customs and Border Protection teams descended on the city at the weekend and arrested at least 81 people – while normally-thriving immigrant enclaves and business districts came to a standstill.
Federal agents were deployed in what the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), calls Operation Charlotte’s Web, sparking protests.
Charlotte is the state’s largest city, home to a steadily growing and diverse population. Over the weekend, videos circulated on social media that showed people being chased or simply picked up by federal agents outside of various local businesses.
For the first time in 28 years, the popular Manolo’s Bakery closed for the weekend.
“Our city has gone from a thriving city to a standstill,” Charlotte city council member-elect JD Mazuera Arias said in a telephone interview as he drove to the bakery “to be in solidarity” with his community as people came out to demonstrate against the crackdown.
Owner Manolo Betancur told the Charlotte Observer that “we need to protect our families [from] family separation”, amid various actions by the Trump administration in its mass deportation agenda that are dividing loved ones as parents are deported.
In east Charlotte, a predominantly Latino neighborhood, Willy Aceituno captured a video of US border patrol agents smashing his car window on Saturday morning, while bystanders recorded footage of him being pulled out of his pickup truck, thrown to the ground and handcuffed while he shouted: “I am a citizen.” Aceituno, a Honduran-born US citizen, was later released.
Speaking on the phone from one of the laundromats he owns in east Charlotte on Saturday morning, David Rebolloso fought back tears.
“I’m heartbroken, really,” he said, adding that business has gone down significantly in the last week as reports circulated that Customs and Border Protection was coming to town. Many of his customers are construction workers who use his coin-operated machines to wash their weekly laundry.
“People are nervous just because of the tactics. Even me. I’m brown-skinned and I’m an American citizen and I’m a [military] vet. But here I’m thinking: should I be carrying my passport with me?”
In a press statement released on Sunday morning, the advocacy organization Siembra NC said Saturday was when “the most immigrants were arrested in a single day in state history.” These incidents include citizen reports of landscapers accosted in a suburban neighborhood in east Charlotte while putting up Christmas decorations.
Border protection also arrested a teenage worker at the Super G Mart grocery store, as reported by the Charlotte Observer. Store owner Peter Han told the newspaper that the boy was no older than 16. “The most appalling thing was: these guys still had the audacity to smile and wave at the camera after … coming and dragging a boy out, pinning him against the concrete.”
Democratic governor Josh Stein on Friday had encouraged North Carolinians to “bear witness” and call out any “injustice” and the arrests are set to continue.
“If you see any inappropriate behavior, use your phones to record and notify local law enforcement, who will continue to keep our communities safe long after these federal agents leave,” he said in a statement.
In 2018, five Black Democrats ran for county sheriff offices under the promise of ending cooperation with ICE. They all won, including current Mecklenburg county sheriff Gary McFadden, and severed their counties’ contracts with ICE. In retaliation, ICE launched a 2020 public relations campaign with billboards in Charlotte showing mugshots of immigrants arrested for crimes.
McFadden said on Sunday that he was not surprised by federal agents’ actions this weekend. “This is something I have seen, something I have been battling repeatedly,” he said.
McFadden confirmed that his office will not assist ICE or border patrol with law enforcement actions. That also means the county cannot intervene in any federal arrests.
“Border patrol are going to do what they are being tasked to do. We cannot stop that,” he said. “I would suggest that people stay out of their way.”
The sheriff, who is Black, acknowledged that “some communities welcome this” in Mecklenburg county “and the others are living in fear and anxiety for the rest of this week, maybe the rest of this year. Mentally it’s unbelievable to live in fear every day. African Americans can maybe understand it a little better than other people.”
Other local elected officials were also critical.
“We do not need to have border patrol,” said state representative Aisha Dew at a press conference on Friday. “I’m not quite sure what border we’re patrolling here ... We don’t have borders here in North Carolina that need to be protected.”
That distinction is what council member Mazuera Arias says scares the community most.
“This moment feels different because we’ve never had to experience border patrol,” he said. “It’s unprecedented and a gross violation not only of the constitutional rights of immigrants, but of US citizens. There is zero communication about why they are coming here and what is their objective.”
While the homeland security website highlights its efforts to arrest criminals in this operation, being an undocumented immigrant in the US is legally a civil offense, not a criminal one.
Immigrants and allied communities began bracing for the worst a week ago. On the heels of aggressive and often violent operations in Los Angeles and Chicago, early rumors quickly circulated that Charlotte would be next.
Stefanía Arteaga, co-founder of the Carolina Migrant Network, which provides pro bono legal services for detained immigrants, said ICE activity this past spring shook the community. Her organization supported families after a raid in nearby King’s Mountain in April, where 30 people were arrested by ICE at the Buckeye Fire Equipment Company. In May, ICE swept the city of Charlotte, detaining a man a half a mile from Rebolloso’s laundromat.
When that happened, Arteaga said, Carolina Migrant Network began conducting verification trainings once a week.
“Now we’re about to do them every day,” she added.
“Charlotte has had a heavier ICE presence all of this year,” said Nikki Marín Baena, co-director of Siembra NC.
Rebolloso noticed business slowing down as soon as Donald Trump began his second term promising mass deportation. Many people he knows left the country out of fear.
“They would rather forge their own destiny than be picked up by ICE and not know where they are going to wind up,” he said. “Families are being separated. A lot of people are nervous and scared.”
Carolina Migrant Network and Siembra NC both run hotlines for community members to report and verify activity. In a statewide call last Tuesday, several organizations, politicians and community leaders connected to strategize on tapping into collective resources. Hundreds are attending training on legal rights and community patrols are offering rides to work, school and church.
“Allies are learning how to help their neighbors,” said Arteaga. “I think that’s beautiful. In a scenario where this administration is trying to sow division, we see an organic movement of community members trying to provide support and assistance.”
