US cracks down on immigrants: Border Patrol arrests 81 from North Carolina’s Charlotte

Federal agents arrested at least  81  people in  Charlotte, North Carolina, this weekend, a senior commander said on Sunday, marking a sharp escalation in the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.

Gregory Bovino, the U.S.  Border  Patrol  official who led  immigration  crackdowns in Los Angeles and Chicago before he arrived in  Charlotte  this week, said on social media early Sunday  that agents made the North Carolina  arrests  within a roughly five-hour span on Saturday, their  first  day  of operating in  Charlotte. Many of those arrested had “significant criminal and  immigration  history,” Bovino wrote.

Neither the  Border  Patrol  nor  Immigration  and Customs Enforcement immediately responded to requests for comment on Sunday. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees those agencies, did not respond to a request for comment.

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Mass deportation and strict enforcement of  immigration  laws have been a key part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s domestic policy agenda. Since Trump, a Republican, took office in January, federal  immigration  agents have carried out raids in largely Democratic-run cities, along with more conservative rural areas.

The efforts have led to large protests in the impacted cities, with citizens often confronting  immigration  agents as they attempt to detain those suspected of being in the United States illegally.  Immigration  rights groups and others have accused the administration of illegally detaining scores of law-abiding citizens caught up in the raids.

North Carolina Governor Josh Stein, a Democrat, said in a video posted on social media on Sunday  night that undocumented and violent criminals should be deported, saying that “everyone wants to be safe in their community, but the actions of too many federal agents are doing the exact opposite in  Charlotte.”

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“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,” Stein said.

“Going after landscapers simply decorating a Christmas tree in someone’s front yard. And entering churches and stores to grab people. This is not making  us  safer. It’s stoking fear and dividing our community,” he said.

DHS officials said on Saturday  that the raids in  Charlotte  were a response to the refusal of local officials to comply with almost 1,400 “detainer” requests by  immigration  officials to hold suspects for up to 48 hours beyond the time they would ordinarily be released.

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by Firstpost staff.)