Federal immigration operation ends in Charlotte, local officials say; DHS denies
Border Patrol ended its federal immigration enforcement operation in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to local officials. However, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin disputed these reports, stating in a post on X that “Operation Charlotte’s Web isn’t ending anytime soon.”
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles posted Thursday that “it appears that U.S. Border Patrol has ceased its operations in Charlotte.”
“I’m relieved for our community and the residents, businesses, and all those who were targeted and impacted by this intrusion,” Lyles wrote. “As we move forward, it is essential that we come together—not as separate groups divided by recent events, but as one Charlotte community.”
In addition, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department wrote that it “received reliable information that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel associated with ‘Operation Charlotte’s Web’ have departed from the Charlotte area as of this morning.”
NBC News reported Thursday that Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office Garry McFadden told them the same. Despite McLaughlin’s denial, a sheriff’s office spokesperson said to Axios that it’s standing by the statement.
A DHS official told NBC they have been in contact with state and local officials in Louisiana to prepare for a mobilization in New Orleans. The AP wrote this week that about 250 federal border agents will be deployed to New Orleans for a two-month immigration enforcement operation dubbed “Swamp Sweep”, with the aim of arresting 5,000 people in southeast Louisiana and into Mississippi. The operation is set to begin on Dec. 1.
McLaughlin declined to comment on “Swamp Sweep,” telling the AP that for “the safety and security of law enforcement we’re not going to telegraph potential operations.”
Operation Charlotte’s Web
Operation Charlotte’s Web in North Carolina began on Saturday. As part of it, DHS said, the agency arrested 370 people in the Charlotte area. Axios reported that Customs and Border Protection agents were also seen in Raleigh and Durham.
In a post to X on Sunday morning, USCBP Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino said many of the 81 people arrested in five hours on the second day of the operation had a significant criminal and immigration history. Bovino and other federal officials claim that their immigration enforcement operations are focused on unauthorized immigrants with violent criminal histories. However, the White House has refrained from releasing detailed records of all of the people it arrests.
Numerous investigations have shown that the majority of people swept up in federal immigration raids have no criminal records, and that some detained individuals have been U.S. citizens. In Chicago, where Operation Midway Blitz took place, only 2.6% of the 614 arrested had criminal histories, the Chicago Tribune found.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
