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Officials in Charlotte, North Carolina, are preparing for a looming federal immigration crackdown that they described on Friday as an invasion, with the city pledging to stand up for migrants against the federal raids.
Local leaders encouraged Charlotte residents to protest peacefully and record agents’ actions from a distance, condemning the Trump administration’s actions in targeting migrants during sweeps in other cities across the country.
“We are living in the strangest of times,” Mecklenburg County Commissioner Susan Rodriguez-McDowell, the granddaughter and wife of immigrants, said on Friday. “A time when a felonious reality TV personality is occupying the White House. Unfortunately, we have seen this movie before, and now they want to film an episode of the ‘Shock and Awe’ show here in our city.”
The leaders came together a day after Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden announced that federal officials notified him that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents would begin an immigration enforcement operation in the community by Saturday or early next week.
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The community is now gearing up for the types of federal actions seen in other cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles, where agents raided local businesses, churches and other venues targeting migrant residents.
“We’ve seen what has taken place in other cities across this country when the federal government gets involved,” Democrat state Rep. Jordan Lopez said. “We have seen the undisciplined agents pointing weapons at unarmed civilians, the indiscriminate rounding up of civilians who are sleeping in their homes in the middle of their night in Chicago. We have seen the worst of law enforcement.”
Local and state officials said they have received no formal notification from the president’s administration about an operation for Charlotte. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has affirmed that it does not have the authority to enforce federal immigration laws and is not involved in planning or carrying out the operations.
Volunteers are being trained by local groups on how to protest while safely documenting any attempts to perform a migrant sweep and notifying migrants of their rights as they prepare for the federal crackdown.
Héctor Vaca, training and immigrant justice director for the group Action NC, said the community is responding to an “invasion” and “racist campaign of terror” by the federal government.
President Donald Trump has targeted Democrat-led cities for migrant sweeps as part of his mass deportation agenda. His administration earlier this year reversed a Biden administration rule that prohibited raids in sensitive areas such as churches, schools and hospitals.
Trump has also sent the National Guard into Democrat-run cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., to support immigration agents and respond to anti-ICE protests, although the deployment of the troops has prompted legal challenges by state officials.
Democrat Gov. Josh Stein argued on Friday that the “vast majority” of people detained in the federal sweeps have no criminal convictions, including some who are American citizens.
“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,” Stein said. “That’s the North Carolina way.”
Council member-elect JD Mazuera Arias, a Colombian who grew up in the U.S. and became a naturalized citizen in 2021, said he knows all too well about fearing a knock at the door and promised that local resources and tax money will not be allocated toward immigration enforcement operations. The Democrat said sweeps in other cities have been about “quotas” and “control” rather than public safety or locking up hardened criminals.
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“Our Queen City will not become a staging ground for fear,” the incoming councilman said. “We will not confuse cruelty with safety. And we will not allow the politics of intimidation to define who belongs here.”
Cameron Pruette, executive director of Charlotte’s Freedom Center for Social Justice, encouraged residents to shop at immigrant-owned businesses and to “peacefully and prayerfully and with moral clarity take action in this moment.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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