By Brad Brooks
(Reuters) -A Border Patrol operation targeting suspected undocumented migrants in Charlotte, North Carolina has ended, local officials said on Thursday, following five days of sweeps by federal agents that ended in hundreds of arrests and sparked protests by local citizens.
Charlotte was the latest city run by Democrats targeted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s mass deportation push, which has seen federal agents using aggressive tactics in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and elsewhere to apprehend immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally. Local residents have taken to the streets in protest and in efforts to warn people about the presence of immigration officers.
Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden said in a statement that federal officials confirmed with his office that the Border Patrol operation had ended, writing that “as a result, there will be no CBP operations” on Thursday. The Border Patrol did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“It is important to clarify that while the ‘Charlotte’s Web’ operation has ended, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will continue to operate in Mecklenburg County as they always have,” the Mecklenburg Sheriff’s Department statement read. “ICE maintains full authority to detain, apprehend, and take into custody any undocumented immigrant in accordance with federal law.”
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said in a written statement that “it appears” the Border Patrol operation was over and that she was “relieved for our community and the residents, businesses, and all those who were targeted and impacted by this intrusion.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which had said that the raids in Charlotte were a response to the refusal of local officials to comply with requests to hold suspects for immigration police, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Homeland Security said on Wednesday that over 250 arrests had been made in Charlotte and the surrounding area. Border Patrol expanded its operations to Raleigh, North Carolina, about 130 miles northeast of Charlotte, earlier this week, and that effort appeared to be ongoing.
Charlotte saw peaceful protests in response to the crackdown, including a walkout by the students of East Mecklenburg High School, and videos of arrests have been posted across social media, including one showing masked agents smashing a pickup window and dragging a man out.
Some Latino-run businesses closed over the weekend and remained shuttered this week in Charlotte, a city of 943,000 people and one of the fastest growing areas in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau. Many people are drawn to Charlotte by higher-paying jobs in the growing finance, tech and logistics sectors.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson and Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Donna Bryson and Alistair Bell)
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