Best Border Patrol commander touted dozens of arrests in North Carolina's largest city on Sunday as Charlotte residents reported encounters with federal immigration agents near churches, apartment complexes and stores.
The Trump administration has made the Democratic city of about 950,000 its own. last goal because strengthening immigration controls, he said, would help fight crime despite brutal objections from local leaders and downward trend in crime rates.
Gregory Bovino, who supervised hundreds of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in a similar effort in Chicago, took to social media to document several of the more than 80 arrests he said agents made. He posted photos of people the Trump administration routinely calls “criminal illegal aliens,” people living in the U.S. without legal permission and presumably having criminal records. They included one man with an alleged drunk driving conviction.
“We have him arrested and taken off the streets of Charlotte so he cannot continue to ignore our laws and drive drunk on the same roads you and your loved ones drive on,” Bovino wrote on X.
The effort was dubbed “Operation Charlotte's Web,” a play on the title of a famous non-North Carolina children's book.
But the flurry of activity immediately raised concerns and questions, including where the detainees would be held, how long the operation would last and what agents' tactics have been criticized elsewhere as aggressive and aggressive. racist — would look like North Carolina. At least one on Saturday US citizen said he was thrown to the ground and briefly detained.
At Camino, a nonprofit group that offers services to Latino communities, some said they were too afraid to leave the house to go to school, doctor's appointments or work. The dental clinic run by the group had nine bookings canceled Friday, spokeswoman Paola Garcia said.
“Latin Americans love this country. They came here to escape socialism and communism, and they are hardworking and religious people,” Garcia said. “They love their family and it's very sad to see that this community now has this target on their back.”
Bovino's operations in Chicago and Los Angeles provoked flurry of lawsuits for the use of force, including widespread deployment chemical agents. Democratic leaders in both places accused the agents of stoking communal tensions. Federal agents mortally wounded one suburban Chicago resident during the traffic stop.
Bovino, head of the Border Patrol's El Centro, Calif., office, and other Trump administration officials called their appropriate tactics for the increase in threats against agents.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, did not respond to requests about Charlotte's arrest. A representative for Bovino did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.
Elsewhere, DHS did not provide details about its arrests. In the Chicago area, the agency provided names and details of only a few of the more than 3,000 arrests it made in the suburbs from September through last week. US citizens were detained in several operations. Dozens of protesters were also arrested.
By Sunday, reports of CBP activity around Charlotte were “overwhelming” and difficult to quantify, Greg Asciutto, executive director of the community development group Charlotte East, said in a morning email.
“Over the last two hours, we have received countless reports of CBP activity at churches, apartment complexes and a hardware store,” he said.
City Councilman-elect J.D. Mazuera Arias said federal agents appear to be focusing on churches and residences.
“Houses of worship. I mean, it's just terrible,” he said. “This is a refuge for people who are looking for hope and faith in dark times like these, and who can no longer feel safe due to the gross violation of people's right to worship.”
DHS said it was focusing on North Carolina because of its so-called sanctuary policy, which limits cooperation between local authorities and immigration agents.
Several county jails house immigrant arrestees and honor detainees, allowing the jails to hold detainees so immigration officials can pick them up. But in Mecklenburg County, where Charlotte is located, this is not the case. Additionally, the city's police department does not assist with immigration enforcement.
DHS said about 1,400 detainees across North Carolina were not honored, putting the public at risk.
“We are deploying Department of Homeland Security law enforcement agencies to Charlotte to keep Americans safe and address threats to public safety,” Assistant Secretary of State Trisha McLaughlin said in a statement.
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Taryn and Dale reported from Chicago. Witte reported from Annapolis, Maryland.
