Border Patrol touts wave of arrests in North Carolina city

Atop Border Patrol commander touted dozens of arrests in North Carolina’s largest city on Sunday as Charlotte residents reported encounters with federal immigration agents near churches and apartment complexes.

- By Sopuia TAREEN, BRIAN WITTE AND MARYCLAIRE DALE

PEOPLE protest Saturday against immigration enforcement in Charlotte, N.C.

(ERIK VERDUZCO Associated Press)

The Trump administration has made the Democratic city of about 950,000 people its latest target for an immigration enforcement surge it says will combat crime, despite fierce objections from local leaders and data showing declining crime rates.

Gregory Bovino, who led hundreds of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on a similar operation in Chicago, went on social media to document some of the arrests he said numbered more than 80 in Charlotte. He posted pictures of people the administration commonly dubs “criminal illegal aliens,” in reference to people living in the U.S. without legal permission who are alleged to have criminal records. That included one of a man with an alleged history of drunk driving convictions.

“We arrested him, taking him off the streets of Charlotte so he can’t continue to ignore our laws and drive intoxicated on the same roads you and your loved ones are on,” Bovino wrote on X.

The effort was dubbed “Operation Charlotte's Web,” a play on the title of the beloved E.B. White children’s book, which isn’t about North Carolina —and whose story of friendship and solidarity with a seemingly doomed farm animal would appear antithetical to the federal crackdown.