'Time for Them to Leave': Charlotte Communities Rise Up Against ICE Invasion

Backlash against the Trump administration's assault on immigrant communities—in which some US citizens are also getting caught up—is growing in Charlotte, North Carolina this week, as over 30,000 students staged walkouts to protest the federal invasion, people rallied to condemn the arrest of day laborers, and communities mobilized to protect their friends and neighbors targeted by federal agents.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the Home Depot on North Wendover Road Wednesday morning, lining both sides of the street, holding signs supporting immigrants and denouncing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents, and cheering as motorists honked in support.

The protest came on the fifth—and reportedly penultimate—day of Operation Charlotte's Web, which the Department of Homeland Security claimed targeted the "worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens." The Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office said Thursday that it has been informed by federal officials that Operation Charlotte's Web has wrapped up.

The administration's "worst of the worst" claim does not seem supported in the vast majority of the hundreds of arrests made in the Charlotte area, as ICE and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have targeted locations including a church, grocery stores, construction sites, homes, and hardware store parking lots where day laborers gather every morning in search of work.

“From guns being drawn on pedestrians, windows broken at restaurants and US citizens being detained and later released, it is clear that CBP's main mission is to disrupt public safety and everyday life in Charlotte,” Zamara Saldivar of the Carolina Migrant Network told WFAE at the Home Depot protest.

Protester Norm Perreault told the Charlotte Observer that "they say they’re deporting the worst of the worst, but day laborers are the best of the best.”

Former Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts, a Democrat, was also at the Home Depot demonstration, where she declared: "We are here to support the immigrant community. We know they’re an integral part of our economy, education, culture, and growth."

“It’s time for them to leave,” Roberts said of the federal invaders. “We need business to get back to normal. We need our schools to be able to educate our children.”

On Monday, an estimated 30,000 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students walked out of their classrooms in protest of the crackdown. Students marched, held signs, and chanted messages including, "No borders, no nations, stop the deportations!"

"It's stressful seeing my mom 'cuz, like, she struggled with bills already going to work. I mean, even without her going to work, she's struggling even more." said one unidentified student protester from East Mecklenburg High School told WCNC, discussing his family's fear of being targeted during the crackdown.

Another unidentified East Mecklenburg High student lamented "little kids losing their parents by ICE and getting taken, seeing them cry, and that, like, it breaks my heart seeing them like that."

East Mecklenburg High multilingual teacher David Gillespie told WJBF that “a school should be a safe place for a child to come. They should be able to come here to get their education, they should be able to come here and spend time with their friends, socialize, they should feel secure.”

“I’m not sure which of my students I’m going to see again," Gillespie said in a separate interview with WCNC. "Whether because their parents were involved in detainments or because their parents have to make that unfortunate safety calculus—Is it worth it to send my kids to school and put myself at risk?”

Parent Portia James told WBTV that she supports the walkout as an avenue for "students to be able to say something and voice their opinion in a positive way."

"This is not the kind of behavior that we want in Charlotte going forward," James said of the federal crackdown.

This week's demonstrations followed Saturday's "No Border Patrol in Charlotte" rally and march, which drew thousands of protesters to First Ward Park and the city's streets.

Concern is also growing over federal agents arresting and terrorizing US citizens who legally follow, monitor, and record their activities. Vigilant residents have been confronting federal agents, shouting, blowing whistles, and recording them. Federal agents have also seized US citizens who've shown proof of their citizenship.

"Our country is facing a constant constitutional assault unlike we've experienced in many decades," David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said on X Wednesday. "Don't give an inch of your freedom."

Undaunted, some democracy defenders have taken to mocking the invaders:

Others are mobilizing to resist the invasion and protect their immigrant relatives, friends, and neighbors. Residents have formed volunteer patrols, parents and educators have monitored schools and surrounding areas for agents, and church parishioners armed with whistles are alerting community members when “la migra esta aquí"—the immigration agents are here.

On Saturday, Manolo's Latin Bakery, which has operated in Charlotte for 28 years, was rocked as federal agents in tactical gear chased, tackled, and arrested people outside the business.

“I have seen these people in SUVs, cars that are not marked with their faces covered... throwing immigrants to the floor and taking them away,” owner Manolo Betancur told Queen City News on Saturday, saying he would temporarily shut down his business.

“I’m going to close the door right now," he said. "Yeah, I’m not going to risk my customers... I don’t want to risk myself even though I am an American citizen. Because the way they look, because they’re way that my accent, because the way that I talk, they’re just going to throw me down to the floor."

Local resident Beth Clements told CNN Thursday that she's been outside the bakery for three days wearing a yellow vest and whistle.

“I’m going to walk the streets with my whistle," she said, "and I want to keep my neighbors protected because they deserve protection and they deserve to live in a world where they’re not scared."