It’s time for a fact check of North Carolina politics. This week, we’re looking at claims related to “Operation Charlotte’s Web.” That’s the name the Trump administration gave to the surge of Border Patrol agents in Charlotte last week. For more, Paul Specht of WRAL joined Marshall Terry.
Marshall Terry: You looked at more claims related to this than we have time to get to. We’re only going to talk about a few, starting with whether or not immigration agents shot someone in Charlotte. Who claimed they did shoot someone? And what’s the truth?
Paul Specht: There is a social media account called ICE of TikTok. They document ICE interactions and they posted a video where someone is being stretchered away with the caption that says “ICE just shot a Hispanic man on Milton Road” in Charlotte. That was viewed about 400,000 times on X. The Department of Homeland Security found it and pushed back, saying, no, this person that you see “had a panic attack and was taken to the hospital, where he attempted to escape by climbing into the ceiling tiles from the hospital bathroom.” So it looks like there's a false narrative going around there about this particular video.
Terry: Let’s look at jails now. Are North Carolina jails refusing to turn over arrestees to law enforcement ‘right now?’ Who claimed that and what’s the answer?
Specht: That was Tricia McLaughlin. She's a top spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security. We couldn't find any evidence of that happening. It appears as if she misquoted or misrepresented a press release from Nov.15. That one said that nearly 1,400 of the department's detainer requests had been ignored. McLaughlin did an interview on Fox News where she framed it more so as something that is actively happening right now.
The law changed last year and now requires sheriffs and other local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with immigration officials. We reached out to Homeland Security. They didn't provide any other comment or details. We reached out to the two areas where we're seeing these operations, being in Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, Raleigh, Wake County.
Those sheriffs, who historically have spoken out against detainer requests, say they are now complying with the new law. And just to be sure, we reached out to the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association and their spokesperson told us they're unaware of any sheriff who is not complying. That's just not happening.
Terry: Let’s go now to a claim about schools. Who made the claim that nearly 15% of Mecklenburg County’s public school students are here illegally?
Specht: That would be Stephen Miller. He's an adviser to President Trump. He tweeted a report that more than 20,000 students were absent from Mecklenburg County schools on the Monday after “Operation Charlotte's Web” started.
That math does check out to about 15% of Mecklenburg's student population. But there are a couple things to know. The first being that data available through the state Department of Public Instruction shows that on any given day, about 8% of Charlotte-Mecklenburg students already miss class. So if you look at that 15%, half of those are already out for any given reason.
Bottom line here is while 1/7 of the student population might have missed school, that does not mean that 1/7 of the student population is illegal, as was suggested.
Terry: Finally, Border Patrol also took credit for improving traffic and lessening congestion in Charlotte, with fewer vehicles on the road during the crackdown. What did you find there?
Specht: On social media, we saw multiple posts showing different Google Maps of traffic in Charlotte, one showing red and orange roads around Charlotte compared to another after the operation had started, with green or blue roads showing clear highways. At least one of them was even retweeted by the Department of Homeland Security. They showed a map of Charlotte with clear roads and added the caption: “You're welcome.”
They seem to take credit for the fact that there was less traffic on the roads after they had started their operation. The state Department of Transportation does monitor traffic on major thoroughfares around Charlotte and Raleigh.
They compared the Monday after the operation started with the Monday before. They said that the number of vehicles dipped between 1% and 7.9% depending on the road. So did traffic plummet? This is a little subjective here, but it looks like traffic cleared in some places by as much as about 8%.
These fact checks are a collaboration between PolitiFact and WRAL and you can hear them Wednesdays on Morning Edition.
