Immigration crackdown results in more than 130 arrests in N.C.

Federal agents are causing fear and division in Charlotte, the governor says.

- ERIK VERDUZCO, GARY D. ROBERTSON AND BRIAN WITTE

BORDER PATROL Cmdr. Greg Bovino in Charlotte with a detainee nearby.

(MATT KELLEY Associated Press)

U.S. immigration agents arrested more than 130 people in a weekend sweep through North Carolina's largest city, a federal official said Monday, as the governor warned that the crackdown is simply "stoking fear.

The Trump administration has made Charlotte, a Democrat-led city of about 950,000 people, its latest focus for an immigration enforcement surge it says will combat crime, despite fierce objections from local leaders and declining crime rates. City residents reported encounters with immigration agents near churches, apartment complexes and stores.

"We've seen masked, heavily armed agents in paramilitary garb driving unmarked cars, targeting American citizens based on their skin color, racially profiling and picking up random people in parking lots and off of our sidewalks," Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, said in a video statement late Sunday. "This is not making us safer. It's stoking fear and dividing our community."

Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Border Patrol officers arrested "over 130 illegal aliens who have all broken" immigration laws. The agency said the records of those arrested included gang membership, aggravated assault, shoplifting and other crimes but did not say how many cases resulted in convictions, how many people had been facing charges or any other details.

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