Border Patrol official says dozens arrested in North Carolina immigration enforcement surge

A top 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 people its latest target for an immigration enforcement surge it says will combat crime, despite fierce objections from local leaders and downtrending crime rates.

Gregory Bovino, who led hundreds of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in a similar effort in Chicago, took to X to document a few of the more than 80 arrests he said agents had made. He also posted a highly-edited video of uniformed CBP officers handcuffing people.

''From border towns to the Queen City, our agents go where the mission calls,'' he posted on X, referring to Charlotte.

The effort was dubbed ''Operation Charlotte's Web'' as a play on the title of a famous children's book that isn't about North Carolina.

Some welcomed the intervention, including Mecklenburg County Republican Party Chairman Kyle Kirby, who said in a post Saturday that the county GOP ''stands with the rule of law — and with every Charlottean's safety first.''

Fear and many questions

At Camino, a nonprofit group that offers services to Latino communities, some said they were too afraid to leave their homes to attend school, medical appointments or work. A dental clinic the group runs had nine cancellations on Friday, spokesperson Paola Garcia said.

''Latinos love this country. They came here to escape socialism and communism, and they're hard workers and people of faith,'' Garcia said. ''They love their family, and it's just so sad to see that this community now has this target on their back.''

Bovino's operations in Chicago and Los Angeles triggered lawsuits over the use of force, including widespread deployment of chemical agents. Democratic leaders in both cities accused agents of inflaming community tensions. Federal agents fatally shot one suburban Chicago man during a traffic stop.

Bovino, head of a Border Patrol sector in El Centro, California, and other Trump administration officials have called their tactics appropriate for growing threats on agents.

Bovino posted pictures Sunday of people the Trump administration commonly dubs ''criminal illegal aliens,'' meaning people living in the U.S. without legal permission who allegedly have criminal records. That included one of a man with an alleged history of drunk driving convictions.

Residents report activity at churches and apartment complexes

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, did not respond to inquiries about the Charlotte arrests. Bovino's spokesman did not return a request for comment Sunday.

Elsewhere, DHS has not offered many details about its arrests. In the Chicago area, the agency only provided names and details on a handful of its more than 3,000 arrests in the region from September to last week. U.S. citizens were detained during several operations. Dozens of protesters were arrested.

By Sunday, reports of CBP activity around Charlotte were ''overwhelming'' and difficult to quantify, Greg Asciutto, executive director of the community development group CharlotteEast, said in an email.

''The past two hours we've received countless reports of CBP activity at churches, apartment complexes and a hardware store,'' he said.

''Houses of worship. I mean, that's just awful,'' he said. ''These are sanctuaries for people who are looking for hope and faith in dark times like these and who no longer can feel safe because of the gross violation of people's right to worship.''

DHS says so-called sanctuary policy plays a role in Charlotte operation

Two people were arrested during a small protest Sunday outside a DHS office in Charlotte and taken to a local FBI office, said Xavier T. de Janon, an attorney who was representing them. He said it remained unclear what charges they faced.

DHS said it was focusing on North Carolina because of so-called sanctuary policies, which limit cooperation between local authorities and immigration agents.

Most North Carolina county jail operators have long honored ''detainers,'' or requests from federal officials to hold an arrested immigrant for a limited time so agents can take custody of them. But some non-cooperation policies have existed in a handful of places in the state, including Charlotte, where the police do not help with immigration enforcement. In Mecklenburg County, where Charlotte is located, the sheriff previously did not honor detainers but said the jail now does as required under changes made to state law since last year.

DHS alleged that about 1,400 detainers across North Carolina had not been honored, putting the public at risk.

''We are surging DHS law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

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This story has been updated to correct which of North Carolina's county jail operators honor immigration detainers. Most have long honored detainer requests, and the Mecklenburg County sheriff says his jail also does so now as required under changes made to state law since last year. The story summary also misspelled the federal operation's name, which is ''Charlotte's Web,'' not ''Charlotte's Webb.''

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