Border Patrol commander praises dozens of arrests in North Carolina, leaving residents ‘overwhelmed’ – WTOP News

A top-level border police commander reported dozens of arrests in North Carolina’s largest city on Sunday Charlotte residents reported encounters with federal immigration agents near churches and apartment complexes.

The Trump administration has made the Democratic city of about 950,000 its own last goal it says an immigration enforcement wave will crack down on crime, despite fierce objections from local leaders declining trend crime rates.

Gregory Bovinowho led hundreds of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in a similar operation in Chicago, took to social media to document some of the arrests which he said reached more than 80 arrests. He posted photos of people the Trump administration often calls “criminal illegal aliens,” for people living in the U.S. without legal permission and with criminal records. That included a man with an alleged history of drunk driving convictions.

“We have arrested him and taken him off the streets of Charlotte so he can no longer ignore our laws and continue to drive drunk on the same roads as you and your loved ones,” Bovino wrote on X.

The initiative was named “Operation Charlotte’s Web,” after a play on the title of a famous children’s book that isn’t about North Carolina. But the flurry of activity immediately raised questions, including where the detainees would be held, how long the operation would last and what officers’ tactics, which have been heavily criticized elsewhere, would look like in North Carolina.

Bovino’s activities in Chicago and Los Angeles caused a flood of lawsuits and investigations into questions about the use of force, including the broad use of force chemical agents. Democratic leaders in both cities said the presence of officers fueled community tensions and led to violence. During the operation in the Chicago area, federal agents fatally shot a suburban man during an attempted traffic stop.

Bovino and other Trump administration officials have called the use of force appropriate amid growing threats to officers’ lives.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, did not respond to questions about the arrests in Charlotte. Bovino’s spokesperson did not return a request for comment on Sunday.

Elsewhere, DHS has not provided many details about who it is arresting. In Chicago, for example, the agency provided only names and details on a handful of the more than 3,000 arrests in the metro region from September through last week. In several cases, US citizens were handcuffed and detained during operations and dozens of protesters were also charged, often in clashes over arrests or protests.

On Sunday, reports of CBP activities were “overwhelming” and difficult to quantify, Greg Asciutto, executive director of the community development group CharlotteEast, said in an email.

“Over the past two hours, we have received numerous reports of CBP activity at churches, apartment complexes and a hardware store,” he said.

City Councilor-elect JD Mazuera Arias said federal agents appeared to be focusing on churches and apartment complexes.

“Houses of worship. I mean, that’s just horrible,” he said. “These are places of refuge for people who are looking for hope and faith in dark times like these and who can no longer feel safe because of the gross violation of people’s right to worship.”

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Tareen and Dale reported from Chicago. Witte reported from Annapolis, Maryland.

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