Federal officials say immigration raids have begun in North Carolina

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Federal officials confirmed that a surge in immigration enforcement in North Carolina’s largest city has begun as agents were seen making arrests in multiple locations on Saturday.

“We are working to strengthen DHS law enforcement in Charlotte to ensure the safety of Americans and remove threats to public safety,” Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

Local officials, including Charlotte Mayor V. Lyles, criticized such actions, saying in a statement that they “cause needless fear and uncertainty.”

“We want people in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County to know that we stand with all residents who simply want to get on with their lives,” said the statement, which was also signed by County Commissioner Mark Gerrell and Stephanie Snead of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education.

Read more: Local mayor says Trump’s next anti-immigration campaign will target Charlotte, North Carolina

The federal government has not previously announced this payment. But Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden confirmed earlier this week that two federal officials told him customs agents would arrive soon.

Paola Garcia, a spokeswoman for Camino — a bilingual nonprofit serving families in Charlotte — said she and her colleagues have noticed an increase in Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulling people over since Friday.

“Basically what we’re seeing is a lot of people are being stopped,” Garcia said. “I even saw a few people get stopped on their way to work yesterday, and then just community members who have seen an increase in ICE and Border Patrol agents in the city of Charlotte.”

Willy Acetono, a Honduran-born U.S. citizen, was on his way to work when he saw Border Patrol agents chasing people.

“I saw a lot of Latinos running,” he said. “I wondered why they were running. The problem is, there were a lot of Border Patrol agents chasing them.”

Acetono, a 46-year-old Charlotte resident, said he was stopped twice by Border Patrol agents. In the second confrontation, they forced him out of his car after breaking the car window and throwing him to the ground.

“I told them: ‘I’m an American citizen,'” he told the Associated Press. “They wanted to know where I was born, or they didn’t believe I was an American citizen.”

Finally, he was allowed to be released after presenting documents proving his nationality.

Charlotte is an ethnically diverse city, with a population of more than 900,000 people, including more than 150,000 foreign-born, according to local officials.

Local organizations responded by organizing training sessions, trying to educate migrants about their rights, and considering organizing peaceful protests. President Donald Trump’s administration has defended federal enforcement operations in cities like Los Angeles and Chicago as necessary to combat crime and enforce immigration laws.

But Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat with a Republican-majority Legislature, said Friday that the “vast majority” of those arrested in these operations have no criminal convictions, and some are American citizens.

He urged people to record any “inappropriate behaviour” they see and report it to local law enforcement.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has previously confirmed that it is not involved in enforcing federal immigration laws.