About 75 people gathered in Charlotte on Saturday to mourn two men fatally shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents this month and to oppose a planned immigration detention center in eastern North Carolina.
Organizers called for independent investigations into the shootings, the release of detainees arrested during one of the operations, and an end to local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
The vigil, organized by Indivisible CLT, Carolina Migrant Network and 50501, honored Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, and Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, a Colombian national. Both men were killed during separate ICE traffic stop operations in Texas and Maine, and neither was the intended target of the enforcement actions, organizers said.
"These are not accidents," immigration attorney Jamiliah Espinosa told attendees as reported by The Charlotte Observer. "They are the predictable result of a system that moves too fast and answers to no one."
Carolina Migrant Network founder Stefanía Arteaga urged local and state officials to end partnerships with ICE and read demands from activists in Texas and Maine, including a transparent investigation into the shootings and the release of three passengers detained alongside Salgado Araujo.
Much of the demonstration also focused on a planned ICE detention facility at the former Rivers Correctional Institution in Winton, which would become North Carolina's first immigration detention center. Protesters argued the rural location would make it harder for detainees to meet with attorneys and family members and reduce public oversight.
"Every community deserves safety," said Megan Argabrite, pastor at Amity Presbyterian Church, urging lawmakers to oppose the project.
Gov. Josh Stein had previously criticized the proposal Friday, saying the facility was not state-owned and that he had not approved the agreement. While supporting the deportation of violent offenders in the country illegally, Stein said ICE "has a proven track record of arresting, detaining, and abusing American citizens" and argued the agency "has not earned our trust."
The proposed facility, owned by private prison operator GEO Group, would hold about 1,400 detainees, making it one of the largest immigration detention centers on the East Coast, according to internal documents obtained by The New York Times and published last week.
The news site reported that ICE plans to open the center later this year as part of a broader effort to expand detention capacity despite scaling back other infrastructure projects. Since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, federal immigration agents have arrested more than 6,300 people in North Carolina, roughly double the total from the previous two years combined, according to the Deportation Data Project.
