The granddaughter of E.B. White, the creator of the children’s book Charlotte’s Web, has called out the Department of Homeland Security for appropriating the name of his literary classic.
Martha White, who manages her grandfather’s literary estate, said he would “not condone fear-mongering,” in response to recent activity by the department and DHS agents in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Operation Charlotte’s Web is targeting criminal illegal aliens who have “flocked” to the Tar Heel State, according to the DHS. “We are surging resources there and we won’t stop until Charlotte is safer,” assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News.
In a statement shared with CNN, White said her grandfather “certainly didn’t believe in masked men, in unmarked cars, raiding people’s homes and workplaces without IDs or summons.
“He didn’t condone fear-mongering,” the statement read.
E.B. White wrote multiple essays on democracy and freedom, some of which his granddaughter edited. She added that her grandfather “believed in the rule of law and due process,” arguing that borrowing his work to sell a mass roundup betrayed that legacy.
Immigration agents arrived in Charlotte, the state’s largest city, over the weekend despite fierce objections from local leaders. At least 81 people were arrested within five hours on Saturday, according to Gregory Bovino, a top border patrol official for Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
Bovino, the commander fronting “Operation Charlotte’s Web,” also quoted the book in a post on X.
“Wherever the wind takes us. High, low. Near, far. East, west. North, south. We take to the breeze, we go as we please,” he wrote. The passage comes Charlotte’s spider babies float away on the wind.
He added, “This time, the breeze hit Charlotte like a storm. From border towns to the Queen City, our agents go where the mission calls.”
White highlighted the messages of generosity and inclusion that underlie Charlotte’s Web, in contrast to DHS messaging.
It is the second time that DHS has been called out over its branding. Last month, the mother of Illinois student Katie Abraham said she was horrified that Chicago’s “Operation Midway Blitz” had been undertaken in her daughter’s name.
“Katie would not want to be associated with an operation in which kids witness their parents being taken into custody on their way to or from school,” Denise Lorence wrote in an open letter for The Chicago Tribune.
“She would not have wanted to be associated with a campaign that targets Chicago — a city she not only loved but felt safe in.”
Back in Charlotte, reports of disruption and fear among residents were widespread over the weekend, including in one incident where agents reportedly turned up at a church in the east of the city on Saturday as 15 to 20 churchgoers were doing yard work on the property and children were playing games.
The masked agents’ presence caused some of the churchgoers to run into the nearby woods, but officers detained one member of the group, the church’s pastor, who did not wish to be identified, according to The Charlotte Observer.
