Immigration enforcement surge begins in Charlotte, North Carolina

Federal authorities confirmed Saturday that a surge in immigration enforcement has begun in North Carolina’s largest city, with officers seen being arrested in multiple locations.

“Americans should be able to live without fear of violent criminal illegal aliens harming them, their families, and their neighbors,” Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “We are rushing DHS law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure the safety of Americans and eliminate public safety threats.”

Local officials, including Mayor Vi Lyles, criticized the actions in a statement, saying they were “causing unnecessary fear and anxiety.”

“We want the people of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County to know that we support all residents who just want to live their lives,” the statement said. The document was also signed by Mecklenburg County Commissioner Mark Jerrell and Charlotte-Mecklenburg City Schools Commissioner Stephanie Snead.

Crime has decreased in the city until August this year compared to the same month in 2024. According to AH Datalytics, murders, rapes, robberies and auto thefts have decreased by more than 20%.

But President Donald Trump’s administration has cited the stabbing death of Ukrainian refugee Irina Salzkach on a Charlotte streetcar to argue that the Democratic-led city is failing to protect its residents. A man with a long criminal history has been charged with the woman’s murder.

The federal government had not previously announced this push. But County Sheriff Garry McFadden said this week that two federal agents told him customs agents would be arriving soon.

Charlotte is an ethnically diverse city of more than 900,000 residents, more than 150,000 of whom are foreign-born, according to local officials.

Willy Acetuno, a 46-year-old Honduran-born American citizen, was on his way to work Saturday when he saw “a bunch of Latinos” being chased by “a bunch of border patrol agents.”

Acetuno said he himself was stopped twice by Border Patrol agents. In the second encounter, they forced him out of the car and threw him to the ground after breaking the window.

“I told them, ‘I’m an American citizen,'” he told The Associated Press. “They either wanted to know where I was born or didn’t believe I was an American citizen.”

Acetuno said he was forcibly taken away in a Border Patrol vehicle and released only after he presented proof of citizenship. He had to walk a short distance back to his car, but then filed a police report about the broken glass.

Paola Garcia, a spokeswoman for Camino, a bilingual nonprofit for families in Charlotte, said she and her colleagues have observed an increase in stops by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents since Friday.

“Basically what we’re seeing is a lot of people are getting pulled over,” Garcia said.

Greg Assiut, executive director of regional development organization Charlotte East, said in an email that Saturday saw “significant border security activity.”

“Most were very quick and targeted arrests, but there were also arrests for ‘fishing’ purposes,” Assiut said.

In East Charlotte, two workers were hanging Christmas lights in Reba Hamilton’s front yard in the morning when two Customs and Border Protection agents arrived. One person reportedly tried to speak to the worker in Spanish. They did not respond and the agents left without making any arrests.

“This is really disconcerting, but the point is, there are two people trying to make a living in my garden. They’re not breaking any laws. That’s what worries me,” said Hamilton, who recorded the encounter on her cell phone.

“This is an abuse of all our laws. It’s unlike anything I ever imagined I would see in my lifetime,” the 73-year-old said.

Amid reports of the crackdown, she had hinted at postponing the work. However, the contractor decided to proceed.

“Thirty minutes later, he was in our yard, doing his job, and Border Patrol arrived,” she said. “They came here because they were looking for an easy pick. There were no people here with TV cameras, no people protesting. Just two guys working in the garden and an old white woman with gray hair sitting on the porch drinking coffee.”

JD Mazuela Arias, who was elected to the City Council in September, was among a group standing guard outside a Latino bakery in an East Charlotte neighborhood.

He said another nearby bakery had also closed due to fear of a crackdown, showing the damage to livelihoods and the economy.

“This is Customs and Border Protection. We are not a border city or a border state. So why are they here?” he said. “This is a gross violation of the constitutional rights not only of immigrants but also of American citizens.”

Assiut said many shops in his area are closed and “we don’t know how long this situation will last, so we are brainstorming ways to keep our shops afloat.”

The Trump administration has championed unprecedented federal enforcement efforts in cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago, saying they are necessary to fight crime and enforce immigration laws.

Some North Carolinians welcomed the raid. Mecklenburg County Republican Party Chairman Kyle Kirby said Democratic officials are “abdicating their duty to protect law and order” and “demonizing the brave men and women of federal law enforcement.”

“Let me be clear: President Trump was given a mandate in the 2024 election to secure our borders,” Kirby said in a statement. “Individuals who are in this country legally have nothing to fear.”

But on Saturday, hundreds of people protested in a Charlotte park.

Democratic Gov. Josh Stein said a day earlier that the majority of those detained in such operations had no criminal convictions and some were citizens. He urged people to document “inappropriate behavior” and report it to local law enforcement.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department stressed that it is not involved in federal immigration enforcement.