After increased border patrol over the weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina governor says efforts ‘create fear’

After a spike in Border Patrol activity in North Carolina’s largest city over the weekend, including dozens of arrests, Gov. Josh Stein said the efforts “create fear” and do not make Charlotte safer.

The Trump administration has made the Democratic city of about 950,000 its latest target for increased immigration enforcement, and says it will combat crime, despite strong objections from local leaders and declining crime rates. Charlotte residents have reported encounters with federal immigration agents near churches, apartment complexes and stores.

“We have seen masked, heavily armed agents wearing paramilitary gear driving unmarked cars, targeting American citizens based on their skin color, racially profiling, and randomly picking up people in parking lots and on sidewalks,” Stein said in a video statement late Sunday. “This does not make us safer. It creates fear and divides our community.”

Stein acknowledged that this was a difficult time, but called on residents to remain calm. If people see something wrong, they should record it and report it to local law enforcement, he said.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Customs and Border Protection, said it was focusing on North Carolina because of so-called sanctuary policies, which limit cooperation between local authorities and immigration agents.

Many county jails house immigration detainees and honor detainees, allowing jails to hold detainees until immigration officers pick them up. But Mecklenburg County, where Charlotte is located, does not. The city’s police department also does not assist in immigration enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security claimed that about 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 he said agents made in social media posts Sunday. He posted photos of people the Trump administration often calls “criminal illegal aliens,” meaning people living in the United States without legal authorization and allegedly having criminal records. This included a man with an alleged history of drink driving convictions.

This activity has raised concerns and questions, including where detainees will be held, how long the operation will take, and what the tactics of agents — which have been criticized elsewhere as aggressive and racist — will be in North Carolina.

However, some have 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 with the safety of all Charlotte residents first.”

Bovino’s operations in Chicago and Los Angeles have sparked lawsuits over the use of force, including the widespread deployment of chemicals. Democratic leaders in both cities accused agents of inflaming community tensions. Federal agents fatally shot a man in a Chicago suburb during a traffic stop.

Bovino, chief of the Border Patrol’s sector in El Centro, California, and other Trump administration officials described their tactics as appropriate to address growing threats to agents.

Taryn and Dale reported from Chicago. Witt reported from Annapolis, Maryland.