'Fear in the community': Charlotte residents, mayor rebuke federal immigration raids
Operation Charlotte's Web is a federal immigration operation in North Carolina.
Anxiety is high across Charlotte, North Carolina, residents and the city's mayor pro tem told ABC News, with a surge of border patrol agents conducting the third day of immigration enforcement under “Operation Charlotte’s Web.”
The Department of Homeland Security said agents arrested over 130 people in Charlotte during the first 24 hours of the operation. The arrests include CBP and ICE arrests, according to DHS.
Since Saturday, at least two people have been detained in a Charlotte plaza, where resident David Rebolloso runs his businesses, a laundromat, he told ABC News.
Over the weekend, he says, Border Patrol agents chased a man through the laundromat and out the back door. Customers who were doing laundry at the time scrambled in terror.
Rebolloso said that the plaza, which caters predominantly to the Hispanic community, is usually bustling. Today, only two of the 18 businesses are open.
“They're just trying to instill fear in the community, you know, so that people don't come out and so it's hurting businesses,” he said. “...really instilling fear for no reason, and just the racism as well, racial profiling. That's that's really all it is, you know, because they're just targeting Latinos … as far as I know here in Charlotte.”
Rebolloso is now trying to figure out how to do a free pickup and delivery service for his customers who don’t want to leave their homes.
“People are calling me … and asking me if it's safe to come in… people are not showing. They're afraid,” he said.
In a statement on Monday, DHS said all 130 people arrested in Charlotte had "broken the immigration laws of our country."
"We will not stop enforcing the laws of our nation until every criminal illegal alien is arrested and removed from our country," the agency said.
Less than a mile away, ABC News spoke with Gloria Connor. She’s a naturalized citizen from Nicaragua and was standing outside a grocery store, with a long list of food items in tow.
Gloria has been making grocery store runs for members of her church, which serves a predominantly Hispanic congregation. She says members are too afraid to leave their homes to shop. The long list on her phone included: tomatoes, celery and ham, among other items.
The church was also forced to cancel services on Sunday as federal agents patrolled the area, she said.
Connor tearfully told ABC News' Faith Abubey that this morning, her 15-year-old grandson didn’t want to go to school for fear that he’d be picked up by Border Patrol agents.
"I say, why are you scared? You [were] born here? He said, 'Grandma, I'm scared... because we look Spanish.'"
Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Danté Anderson told ABC News that city officials are frustrated because there’s been a lack of transparency and lack of communication regarding the immigration raids.
“We didn't know when they were coming until they notified our sheriff at the very last minute, but no communication with local government, no communication about what's the plan? if they were targeting specific people? They say criminals, but it looks like they're just pulling people off the street.” Anderson said.
“We don't know where these residents are being detained. We've heard that approximately 141 residents have been detained thus far. We don't know where they're at. We don't know where they're taking these people, so their loved ones, their families, they don't know where to go, they don't know how to connect or even assist. So it really has been a mission that has been opaque and not clear in communication,” Anderson added.
Anderson calls the operation a “tragedy” and says it has triggered anxiety and panic among residents.
“Border Patrol is in our city in paramilitary garb, with their faces covered with assault weapons, and they're just going through the city, predominantly in South Charlotte and East Charlotte," Anderson said. "I can't imagine anyone having to go through that experience where you're going to work, going to the grocery store, just conducting your day-to-day business, and someone pulls you off and forces you to answer questions, detain you without any real reason whatsoever.”
Anderson notes that Charlotte has seen a double-digit decline in crime in recent years and as a native-born resident, she doesn’t understand the tactics behind “Operation Charlotte’s Web.”
“We have plenty of students who were fearful. We had plenty of families who were afraid to walk their children to school, to put their children on to wait at a school bus, to put their children on a school bus, and that's unfortunate. It hurts families and it hurts children,” Anderson added.
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