NC Newsline – Immigrants and their allies gathered in downtown Raleigh Sunday afternoon to protest the federal Border Patrol’s deployment to Charlotte.
Protestors said it was important to mobilize rapidly and demand that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leave the state while also standing in defense of immigrant families facing escalating threats.
Ariana Perez said she was marching in Raleigh because she was worried about what might happen to her own parents if a similar crackdown were to occur in the Triangle. She was troubled by social media posts claiming to show Border Patrol tactics in Charlotte.
“I don’t think it’s justified,” Perez said. “They are pushing them out of the cars [to the ground] rather than just talking to them.”
Video shared with WBTV show border agents smashing the driver’s side window of one motorist’s vehicle while allegedly searching for undocumented immigrants. The motorist, who was not arrested and says he is a U.S. citizen, said the federal agents were looking for Latino people, not criminals.
In a statement Saturday, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said, “We are surging DHS law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed. There have been too many victims of criminal illegal aliens.”
The DHS statement listed several detainees the agency claims have criminal records that make them a threat to the Charlotte community. The agency said it made 81 arrests in Charlotte Saturday. No numbers for Sunday were available at the time of publication.
On Saturday, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners Chair Mark Jerrell and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education Chair Stephanie Sneed issued a joint statement urging people wishing to demonstrate to do so without resorting to the violence witnessed in other cities.
“Our region has thrived and grown because our strength lies in our diversity and our collective commitment to each other and to this community,” they said in the statement. “Let us all — no matter our political allegiance – stand together for all hard working and law-abiding families.”
While Sunday’s gathering in Raleigh was peaceful, Coco Ferguson, who said she worries for immigrant friends and family, said she hopes that many more North Carolinians will pay attention and raise their voice in the coming weeks.
“It takes every American citizen to fight ICE and to stop them from what they’re doing,” Ferguson said.
