U.S. Customs and Border Patrol began extensive sweeps in Charlotte over the weekend, and agents are expected to be here in large numbers through at least the end of the week. Through Tuesday night, they have arrested 250 people whom the federal government says are here illegally.
The operation has also drawn worldwide attention for videos of agents breaking a man’s car window; of allegations they took a man from church grounds; and agents questioning landscapers and other workers in people’s yards, construction sites and even Myers Park Country Club.
WFAE reporter Steve Harrison joined Morning Edition host Marshall Terry to talk about the political impact of the raids.
TERRY: Steve, what are prominent Republicans saying about this operation?
HARRISON: Marshall, they are almost all standing behind it, unequivocally. Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley, House Speaker Destin Hall, and Charlotte area members of Congress, like Mark Harris, who used to live in Charlotte.
Here he is talking to WBTV:
HARRIS: When you see ICE, when you see Border Patrol, moving in or stepping in, it’s because they have inside knowledge of the criminal element they are going after.
HARRISON: CBP has said that of 130 people arrested in the first two days, 44 had criminal records. The agency highlighted 11 people by name. It said two were known gang members. Five people had previous convictions for drunk driving. Others had convictions for assault.
So that means most of those detained — about two-thirds — do not have prior encounters with the law.
But when you look on social media, many conservatives say that people here illegally, or without documentation, are all law breakers.
TERRY: Steve, Republican Congressman Pat Harrigan, who represents Hickory and Winston-Salem, had some previous harsh words about President Trump’s calls for mass immigration sweeps. What’s he saying now?
HARRISON: That was in 2022, when he was running for a blue congressional seat that included Charlotte. In an interview with WFAE, he said counties that “rounded up and exported people from their country … is a list of countries that we don't want to be involved with. It's Russia. It's North Korea. It's China. It is Nazi Germany,"
And he stuck up for immigrants, even those who came to the US illegally, saying the U.S. needed a pathway to citizenship.
HARRIGAN: The vast, vast majority of immigrants who have come to this country are here because they are trying to build a better life for themselves and their families.
TERRY: That was then. And today?
HARRISON: In a social media post this week, he supported the CBP raids. He wrote that Charlotte has 150,000 foreign nationals, suggesting they are here illegally. But that number is actually foreign-born residents — large numbers of whom are U.S. citizens, or here on some kind of work visa.
He equated that population to a surge in crime uptown, even though the most prominent crime in Charlotte this year — the murder of Iryna Zarutska — was a native-born American accused of killing an immigrant refugee.
He wrote that people in the country illegally strain Charlotte’s housing and schools, and he said a city can not function when the pressure points stack up like this.
TERRY: And what about Thom Tillis?
HARRISON: Tillis lives in Huntersville. He’s been more willing to criticize President Trump since he announced he wasn’t running for reelection.
Last month, for instance, he pushed back against the idea that National Guard troops should be sent to Charlotte to fight crime — something some congressional Republicans have pushed for.
Customs and Border Protection is different from the guard, of course, and it has a different mission. But Tillis has not commented on social media about this week’s operation. We also reached out to his office, and haven’t heard back.
We also reached out to Harrigan and Congressman Tim Moore.
TERRY: Let’s turn to Democrats.
HARRISON: Local leaders in Charlotte have mostly universally condemned the operation.
But the state’s two most prominent Democratic politicians have tacked to the center. Both Senate candidate Roy Cooper and Gov. Josh Stein have said they are OK with the federal government coming to the state to detain and deport violent offenders.
But Cooper criticized CBP for “randomly sweeping people based on what they look like.”
Stein, who was in Charlotte on Tuesday, said much the same thing:
STEIN: If there are violent criminals, if there are drug traffickers causing all sorts of damage in our community, we want them to be held accountable. And that’s true if they are U.S. citizens or if they are here illegally, and if they are here illegally, we want those folks deported.
HARRISON: He added:
STEIN: What we’re seeing however, here in Charlotte is folks, federal agents, paramilitary gear, masks on their faces, unmarked cars, just driving in parking lots, picking people off sidewalks, going to churches and grabbing people.
TERRY: And Steve, this will probably be an issue in the mid-term elections next year.
HARRISON: It will for sure, and also the 2028 presidential election.
A few things to keep in mind: Trump’s approval rating on immigration has fallen, and is now around 40%, according to a September Reuters poll.
But, and this is a big but: President Biden’s approval on immigration during most of his term was way lower — in the high 20s to low 30s. People were very concerned about the surge of migrants coming into the country on the southern border.
And Reuters this fall also asked voters which party they trust more on immigration. Republicans still hold a 42-29 advantage over Democrats.
So that’s one reason why Republicans are standing by this operation — despite some of the uncomfortable images we’ve seen. They are more trusted than Democrats on the issue.
