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After the surge in border Patrol activity in North CarolinaJosh Stein, the governor of the largest city where dozens of arrests were made over the weekend, said the effort was aimed at “instilling fear,” not fear. charlotte Safe.
trump Despite vehement objections from local leaders and declining crime rates, the administration has made the Democratic city of about 950,000 people its latest target for an immigration enforcement increase it says will combat crime. Charlotte residents reported encounters with federal immigration agents near churches, apartment complexes and stores.
“We have seen masked, heavily armed agents in paramilitary garb driving unmarked cars, targeting American citizens based on the color of their skin, racially profiling and picking off random people in parking lots and on our sidewalks,” Stein said in a video statement late Sunday. “This is not making us safer. It is creating fear and dividing our community.”
Stein acknowledged it was a stressful time, but he called on residents to remain peaceful. He said if people see something wrong they should record it and report it to local law enforcement.
Department of Homeland SecurityThe company that oversees CBP has said it is focusing on North Carolina because of so-called sanctuary policies, which limit cooperation between local officials and immigration agents.
Many county jails house immigrant arrestees and honorarium detainees, which allows the jails to hold detainees until immigration authorities can pick them up. But Mecklenburg County, where Charlotte is located, is not. Additionally, the city police department does not assist in immigration enforcement. DHS alleged that approximately 1,400 detainees across North Carolina were not honored, putting the public at risk.
Gregory Bovino, who led hundreds of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in a similar effort in Chicago, documented some of the more than 80 arrests made by agents in a social media post Sunday. He posted photos of what the Trump administration commonly calls “criminal illegal aliens,” meaning people living in the U.S. without legal permission who allegedly have criminal records. These include a man who allegedly has a history of drunk driving.
The activity has sparked fears and questions, including where detainees will be held, how long the operation will last and what the agents’ tactics — which have been criticized as aggressive and racist elsewhere — will look like in North Carolina.
However, some welcomed the effort, 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 the safety of every Charlottean comes first.”
Bovino’s operations in Chicago and Los Angeles sparked lawsuits over the use of force, including the widespread deployment of chemical agents. Democratic leaders in both cities accused the agents of stoking community tensions. Federal agents shot and killed a suburban Chicago man during a traffic stop.
Bovino, the Border Patrol field chief in El Centro, California, and other Trump administration officials have described their tactics as appropriate given the growing threats against agents.
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Tareen and Dale reported from Chicago. Witte reported from Annapolis, Maryland.