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charlotte
'Time for Them to Leave': Charlotte Communities Rise Up Against ICE Invasion
"I want to keep my neighbors protected because they deserve protection and they deserve to live in a world where they’re not scared," said one woman patrolling the streets of Charlotte with a whistle.
Nov 20, 2025
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.”
“We are here to support the immigrant community,” said former Charlotte mayor Jennifer Roberts.
Story here: https://t.co/SWSMzj8oSR pic.twitter.com/2GBG3TXbkL
— WBTV News (@WBTV_News) November 19, 2025
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:
ICE IN CHARLOTTE NC‼️ This is the appropriate energy needed for this moment in history‼️ pic.twitter.com/bzdFLSWLyt
— Meidas_Charise Lee (@charise_lee) November 19, 2025
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."
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'This Is Our Reality': Charlotte Residents Horrified After Border Patrol Arrests Women for Honking Car Horn
"Our city has gone from a thriving city to a standstill," said one local official.
Nov 18, 2025
Residents in Charlotte, North Carolina are expressing outrage after two local women were arrested for honking their car horn to alert others that US Border Patrol was in the area.
Local news station WCNC reported on Monday that the two women, who are US citizens, were taken into custody in the city's Plaza Midwood neighborhood after Border Patrol agents pulled them over and accused them of interfering in operations by honking their horn.
Video of the incident shows masked federal agents yelling at the women and demanding that they roll down their car windows. When the women do not comply, one officer smashes through the window and then he and other officers pull them out of the vehicle.
The two women, who have not been identified, then spent several hours in an FBI facility before being released with citations.
Local resident Shea Watts, who took video of the encounter, told WCNC that he was feeling "somewhere between disbelief and just being really upset that this is our reality now" as he watched the incident unfold.
Watts also discussed his own interactions with the federal officers whom he was filming.
"I was already close to despair and feeling helpless and hopeless," he said. "But I think just the reminder that if we see something, to document it. I tried to be respectful and ask questions and knowing my own rights, and I was told to back up a couple times, which, that's fine, but at the end of the day, this all feels a little heavy handed."
Charlotte has become the latest target of the Trump administration's mass deportation operation, which has already drawn opposition from both local residents and elected officials in the North Carolina city.
NBC News reported on Monday that many Charlotte residents are living in fear of immigration operations in the city, with some local businesses closing down and some local churches reporting dramatic drops in attendance during the current operation.
Jonathan Ocampo, US citizen of Colombian descent who lives in the area, told NBC News that he's started carrying his passport with him everywhere for fear of being mistaken for an undocumented immigrant.
"I’m carrying it here right now, which is sad," he said. "It's just scary."
Charlotte city council member-elect JD Mazuera Arias told The Guardian on Monday that the immigration enforcement operations have had a chilling effect on the entire community.
"Our city has gone from a thriving city to a standstill," he said.
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Charlotte Residents Defend Community as ICE Arrives for Latest Trump Immigration Crackdown
"In a scenario where this administration is trying to sow division," said one local organizer, "we see an organic movement of community members trying to provide support and assistance.”
Nov 17, 2025
In Charlotte, North Carolina, the Trump administration's latest anti-immigration crackdown garnered headlines over the weekend both for "how inhumane and aggressive" the operations by US Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were, as one journalist said, and the action that local residents immediately took to protect their neighbors from arrests and raids.
"I just started recording them," said Rheba Hamilton after federal agents pulled up to her house in a vehicle and intimidated two Latino men who were decorating the trees in her yard. "They left."
As the agents pulled away, she yelled, "Get the hell out of my yard, you assholes!"
Hamilton, who told The New York Times she had tried to warn the workers against hanging the Christmas lights due to the deportation operations, said it was "terrifying" to see Border Patrol agents on her property.
"I was concerned about this happening," Hamilton said. "We've got great people here... Nobody's going to regret moving here if you come here with the right kind of heart, and that includes our immigrants."
Hamilton filmed the Border Patrol agents after North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, called on Charlotte residents to "bear witness" to ICE arrests and raids at businesses and homes as the Trump administration launched "Operation Charlotte's Web"—the latest stop on its nationwide attack on immigrant and Latino communities, which has also unfolded in Chicago and other cities.
“If you see any inappropriate behavior, use your phones to record and notify local law enforcement, who will continue to keep our communities safe long after these federal agents leave,” said Stein last week.
Operation Charlotte's Web began as the administration released the names of more than 600 people detained in the Chicago area whose arrests may have violated a court order, and revealed that just 16 of them had an alleged criminal history.
More than 3,000 people in all have been arrested in the Chicago area since ICE and other federal agencies began "Operation Midway Blitz" in September.
Border Patrol Commander-at-large Gregory Bovino reported that at least 81 people were arrested in Charlotte by the end of the weekend, with the mass arrests completed in about five hours, and claimed that those who were taken into custody had “significant criminal and immigration history"—similar claims that have been made about the operations in Chicago.
The local advocacy group Siembra NC said “the most immigrants were arrested in a single day in state history" on Saturday.
The community development group CharlotteEast told the Guardian on Sunday that it had received an "overwhelming" number of reports from residents about Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in the area, including at places that were previously protected under the Biden administration from immigration enforcement.
“The past two hours we’ve received countless reports of CBP activity at churches, apartment complexes, and a hardware store,” executive director Greg Asciutto told the outlet.
The Charlotte Observer reported that congregants at a church in east Charlotte "scattered into the woods" after masked federal agents arrived and detained a member while the church community was doing yard work.
"The agents asked no questions and showed no identification before taking one man away, whose wife and child were inside at the time," the newspaper reported. "Inside the church, women and children sobbed as they wondered whether their loved ones had been taken."
Sam Stein of the Bulwark noted that community members "got the heads up and ran to the woods to confront ICE agents with, among other things, deafening whistles. ICE responded by threatening to throw gas canisters at them."
Advocates handed out whistles—like those used by many in Chicago in recent weeks—to local residents on Sunday, and hundreds of people packed a training session on Friday night where Carolina Migrant Network advised them on banding together to stop ICE from raiding their communities.
Charlotte NC: Activists are handing out whistles to community members to alert their neighbors to the presence of ICE and Federal Agents pic.twitter.com/0lranCzuip
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) November 16, 2025
A grocery store, Compare Foods, also announced it would be offering free delivery to keep people from having to venture out while federal agents are in the city.
"For all those customers who don't feel comfortable coming to the store in person, they can shop online, and then we will have it delivered through our delivery service to their home," said Omar Jorge, owner of the local chain.
Manolo's Bakery, meanwhile, closed over the weekend for the first time in its 28-year history, with owner Manolo Betancur telling the Observer, "We need to protect our families [from] family separation."
Stefania Arteaga of the Carolina Migrant Network told the Guardian that the grassroots weekend efforts show "allies are learning how to help their neighbors" in the city.
"In a scenario where this administration is trying to sow division," she said, "we see an organic movement of community members trying to provide support and assistance.”
Daniel Nichanian of Bolts magazine said Charlotte—which is not near a US border—likely was chosen as President Donald Trump's latest target because of a "war" between ICE and Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden, going back to 2018 when McFadden was among five Black Democrats who won sheriff elections in the state on the promise of ending cooperation with ICE.
The agency targeted Charlotte two years later, posting billboards that showed mugshots of immigrants arrested in the area.
As with other cities Trump has targeted for mass deportation operations this year, crime has been falling in Charlotte, with an 8% decrease in overall crime last month compared to a year prior, and a 20% reduction in violent crimes.
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