Charlotte is the latest community to see a stepped-up immigration enforcement effort by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden (D) last week announced that two federal officials confirmed plans for agents to begin an operation in the Democratic stronghold, which is estimated to have more than 150,000 foreign-born residents.
Agents began arriving over the weekend, and 81 arrests were made on Saturday, the first day of the operation.
Hannah Davis, investigations manager for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and a North Carolina native, says President Donald Trump is sending a message.
"The administration sometimes shows its hand, but I think it's also trying to display to the American public — to the news media, the outlets — that, hey, we're not playing," she tells AFN. "Self-deportations are on the rise, and forced deportations are, too, and we're coming to a city near you."
She thinks it has been kind of quiet with the government shutdown, but these ICE operations are not quiet. Davis also points out that federal immigration agents are familiar with the area.
"Just a couple of months ago, over the summer, ICE did a small raid," she notes. "There wasn't a lot of media presence about it, but it happened in Charlotte, and they arrested 24 criminal illegal aliens."
Two of those were MS-13 gang members, and six had active detainers that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Sheriff's Office refused to honor.
"It's an ongoing issue," Davis adds about illegal immigration, "and the only way to nip it in the bud is to put ICE's presence there permanently for a while.”
Charlotte residents have responded with a mixture of opposition and support. Critics claim the operations are causing fear, and many residents have protested. Supporters, however, approve of the enforcement of immigration laws.
