Greater than 130 folks suspected of being in the US illegally have been detained in Charlotte, North Carolina, authorities mentioned, as President Donald Trump’s nationwide deportation push intensifies. The raids passed off over simply two days.
Here’s what we all know:
What occurred in Charlotte?
Federal brokers swept into Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday, escalating Trump’s widening immigration crackdown and turning the town into the most recent point of interest for large-scale arrests in Democratic-led areas. Charlotte is a Democratic-leaning metropolis of about 950,000 folks and a monetary companies hub.
Officers have been seen exterior church buildings, round residence complexes, and alongside busy buying corridors because the operation unfolded.
“We’re rising the presence of DHS regulation enforcement in Charlotte to maintain Individuals secure and take away threats to public security,” Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin mentioned on Saturday.
In accordance with Homeland Safety officers, 44 of the detainees have prison data, together with two described as gang members. The alleged offences embrace driving whereas intoxicated, assault, trespassing, larceny and hit-and-run. One arrested particular person, in line with the commander main the raids, is a registered intercourse offender.
President Trump and Secretary Noem won’t again down from their mission to make America secure once more.
North Carolina sanctuary politicians are defending the almost 1,400 prison unlawful aliens in Charlotte’s jails by REFUSING to show them over to ICE, finally releasing these… pic.twitter.com/rM2kt3gLuB
— Homeland Safety (@DHSgov) November 17, 2025
What precisely is Operation Charlotte’s Net?
The DHS has labelled the raids Operation Charlotte’s Net, taking part in on the title of the well-known kids’s e book, which isn’t about North Carolina.
The e book, Charlotte’s Net, follows a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in peril of being killed, Charlotte writes messages in her net to attempt to save him.
However in Charlotte, the town, the online isn’t a saviour — it’s the dragnet to catch immigrants.
“Wherever the wind takes us. Excessive, low. Close to, far. East, west. North, south. We take to the breeze, we go as we please,” Gregory Bovino, the DHS commander main the raids, mentioned on X on Saturday, quoting from the long-lasting e book.
“This time, the breeze hit Charlotte like a storm. From border cities to the Queen Metropolis, our brokers go the place the mission calls.”
‘Wherever the wind takes us. Excessive, low. Close to, far. East, west. North, south. We take to the breeze, we go as we please.’ — Charlotte’s Net
This time, the breeze hit Charlotte like a storm. From border cities to the Queen Metropolis, our brokers go the place the mission calls.#DHS #CBP… pic.twitter.com/de0nqHn3vR
— Commander Op At Giant CA Gregory Okay. Bovino (@CMDROpAtLargeCA) November 16, 2025
But the DHS resolution to make use of a preferred kids’s e book title for a marketing campaign that’s anticipated to interrupt up a number of households has additionally confronted criticism, together with from the granddaughter of EB White, the creator of Charlotte’s Net.
“He believed within the rule of regulation and due course of,” Martha White mentioned in a press release, referring to her grandfather. “He definitely didn’t consider in masked males, in unmarked automobiles, raiding folks’s houses and workplaces with out IDs or summons.”
What’s driving the immigration raid?
Officers insist the surge is geared toward tackling crime, arguing — because the Trump administration has in different cities which were focused in comparable raids — that native authorities have failed to make sure regulation and order.
Nevertheless, native leaders have objected to the raids and pointed to police knowledge, which reveals that crime has been declining.
In accordance with data launched by the town, crime has dropped 8 % from final 12 months, with violent crimes down 20 %.
Nevertheless, Charlotte however grabbed nationwide and world consideration this summer season when Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was fatally stabbed on a light-rail prepare, in an assault captured on video. The suspect is a US citizen, however the Trump administration repeatedly emphasised that he had been arrested greater than a dozen instances earlier than.
The DHS additionally mentioned the Charlotte raids occurred as a result of native officers didn’t honour almost 1,400 requests to carry folks for as much as 48 hours after their launch, which might have allowed immigration brokers to take them into custody.
“I made it clear that I don’t need to cease ICE from doing their job, however I do need them to do it safely, responsibly, and with correct coordination by notifying our company forward of time,” Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden mentioned in a press release, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), part of the DHS that has been main anti-immigrant raids in a number of city areas throughout the nation. Charlotte falls in Mecklenburg County.
Tensions stay excessive. “Democrats in any respect ranges are selecting to guard prison illegals over North Carolina residents,” state Republican chairman Jason Simmons mentioned on Monday, regardless that ICE brokers have additionally arrested a number of visa holders and everlasting residents — all residing legally within the US — throughout the raids.
Who’s Gregory Bovino?
Gregory Bovino is a senior US Border Patrol official who has develop into a central determine in Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdowns in huge cities. He has led the high-profile enforcement marketing campaign in Chicago since September and has additionally been concerned in operations in Los Angeles and now Charlotte.
Bovino has often served as the general public face of those efforts — holding press briefings, giving interviews, and selling arrest numbers as indicators of success.
His method has drawn controversy. Civil rights teams, native officers, and authorized specialists have criticised techniques used below his command, together with aggressive arrests, the usage of chemical brokers towards detainees, and the usage of Border Patrol troops removed from the US border. A number of operations have confronted authorized challenges, and judges in addition to native leaders have questioned whether or not federal brokers are appearing inside their jurisdiction.
Concerning the usage of chemical brokers, Bovino advised The Related Press information company that utilizing chemical brokers is “far much less deadly” than what his brokers encounter. “We use the least quantity of drive essential to impact the arrest,” he mentioned. “If I had extra CS gasoline, I might have deployed it.” CS gasoline is a tear gasoline generally utilized by federal brokers.
What do we all know in regards to the communities affected?
Native reporting reveals that Charlotte’s immigrant neighbourhoods felt the affect instantly. The Charlotte Observer described how a baker, Manuel “Manolo” Betancur, shut down his bakery on Saturday afternoon — the primary closure in its 28-year historical past — after studying that Border Patrol brokers had arrived within the metropolis.
He mentioned he has no concept when he’ll reopen.
“The quantity of worry that we have now proper now’s no good,” Betancur mentioned, exterior Manolo’s Bakery on Central Avenue, a significant hub for the town’s immigrant group.
“It’s not price it to take that threat,” he mentioned. “We have to shield our households and [prevent] household separation.”
The bakery was not the one one. Companies alongside Central Avenue shut their doorways as masked federal brokers carried out arrests, prompting anger and anxiousness locally.
Pisco Peruvian Gastrolounge posted on Saturday that it could be quickly closing. “We can’t anticipate the second we are able to safely welcome you again and proceed sharing our tradition, our meals, and our vibes,” the restaurant shared on Instagram.
What’s subsequent?
Federal immigration officers are getting ready to widen their actions in North Carolina, with Raleigh anticipated to be included within the enforcement effort as quickly as Tuesday, the town’s mayor mentioned.
Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell famous on Monday that she had obtained no particulars about how giant the operation can be or how lengthy it’d final, and immigration authorities have but to make any public statements.
“I ask Raleigh to recollect our values and preserve peace and respect by way of any upcoming challenges,” Cowell mentioned in a press release.
Raleigh, with a inhabitants of greater than 460,000, is North Carolina’s second-largest metropolis after Charlotte, and is a part of a area generally known as the Analysis Triangle that’s dwelling to a number of main universities, together with Duke and the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The potential enlargement of immigration raids comes as nationwide detention figures attain historic ranges. ICE held 59,762 folks in custody as of September 21, 2025, in line with TRAC Reports, a nonpartisan data-gathering platform. That is the best variety of ICE arrests ever recorded. Roughly 71.5 % of these detained had no prison conviction, and plenty of of these with convictions had solely minor offences, resembling visitors violations.
