Bovino’s hired thugs terrorize Charlotte
Customs and Border Patrol operatives began deportation operations targeting noncitizens in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County (roughly 15% Latino) on Saturday despite opposition from local officials and community groups. Agents made arrests in multiple locations. Citizens protested downtown.
The Associated Press reports:
Local officials including Mayor Vi Lyles criticized such actions, saying in a statement that they “are causing unnecessary fear and uncertainty.”
“We want people in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County to know we stand with all residents who simply want to go about their lives,” the statement said. It was also signed by Mecklenburg County Commissioner Mark Jerrell and Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board member Stephanie Sneed.
Crime is down in the city this year through August, compared with the same months in 2024. Homicides, rapes, robberies and motor vehicle thefts fell by more than 20%, according to AH Datalytics.
But President Donald Trump’s administration has seized upon the fatal stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light-rail train to argue that Democratic-led cities fail to protect residents. A man with a lengthy criminal record has been charged with the woman’s murder.
The stage is set. The curtain has raised.
On Saturday, Charlotte’s immigrant hubs were largely deserted as word spread that federal agents were in town.
El Salvadoran restaurants were closed. Street vendors who usually sell mangos on weekends were absent. And residents shared videos of masked Border Patrol agents arriving at small businesses and Home Depots across the city, searching for people.
It was not immediately clear how many undocumented immigrants had been detained as of early Saturday afternoon, but the reach of the operation, dubbed “Charlotte’s Web” by the agency, appeared to be spreading.
No sooner had operations begun than CBP was harassing U.S. citizens like Willy Aceituno, 46, for living in the U.S. while brown (Charlotte Observer):
Willy Aceituno said he’d just left a Charlotte restaurant Saturday morning when federal agents approached him in his pickup, broke a window and stole his keys.
“Are you an illegal immigrant?” he said an officer asked in the parking lot outside Pollo Campero, near the intersection of South Boulevard and Archdale Drive.
Aceituno recounted the conversation to a Charlotte Observer journalist at the scene.
“I don’t have to answer your questions,” he said he replied. “Why don’t you ask other people that? Why just me?”
Aceituno said he’s originally from Honduras and has been a U.S. citizen for about six years.
Agents twice stopped him in his pickup within about 10 minutes, he said. Both times he was still in the parking lot, he said.
A different set of CBP agents smashed his window the second time, dragged Aceituno from his car, detained him for a time then let him go.
Aceituno reported the assault and property damage to local police and recounted the events to reporters. He figured to allow CBP to waste time on him while other Latinos scattered.
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NC Gov. Josh Stein issued a statement on Friday urging residents to remain peaceful and not allow themselves to be provoked. Following the model set by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Stein urged people to use their phones to record inappropriate behavior and to alert local police.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection commander-at-large Greg Bovino is visible in the video below shot by a local.
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WFAE reports the sort of arrests people witnessed on Saturday:
The owner of a car repair shop at the corner of Rosehaven Drive and Central Avenue said agents pulled into her parking lot around 9:30 a.m., causing customers and employees to scatter. She said agents chased her lead mechanic and tackled him after he tripped and fell. She showed a reporter surveillance video from the store’s security cameras.
The owner, who declined to give her name out of fear of retribution, said the employee had been working as her lead mechanic for about five months, and was seeking asylum from Nicaragua.
“They just jumped out of the van and took whoever they see as Latino,” she said. “The Border Patrol is not here for criminals. They are taking hard-working people.”
She said without a lead mechanic, she would have to close the store until she can find a replacement.
Hundreds assembled and marched in downtown Charlotte in protest of the federal presence.
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If Bovino and his men mean to terrorize the community, mission accomplished (Newsweek):
Members of a church in east Charlotte, North Carolina, fled to nearby woods on Saturday after masked federal agents arrived and detained one congregant, according to a report from The Charlotte Observer, amid the ongoing immigration crackdown taking place in the city.
“We thought church was safe and nothing [was] gonna happen,” a 15-year-old witness told the newspaper. “But it did happen.”
[…]
“I thought, ‘Wait, why am I running? I’m a citizen,’” said Miguel Vazquez, one of the individuals who fled into the nearby woods.
Mischief managed.
Here in Buncombe County (8% Latino) 2-1/2 hours west of Charlotte, reports circulated online Saturday evening of license checks, but no reports yet of arrests. We’re watchful.
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