More than 100 people gathered in front of the Hudson United Methodist Church on Saturday in Hudson, N.C., for a prayer vigil in the wake of an immigration raid the prior weekend in Wilson Creek, a wilderness area in Pisgah National Forest.
On Sunday, July 26, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carried out a joint operation in Wilson Creek with the U.S. Forest Service and the Caldwell County Sheriff's Office, who said 13 people were arrested. The collaboration with the Forest Service may be the first of its kind in the state, according to Siembra NC, an immigration advocacy group that organized the vigil.
“A question that I have as someone that loves and appreciates the national forests is, why is that a place of immigration enforcement?” Andreina Malki, organizer with Siembra NC, said. “That is a place where families go to rest, where families go to enjoy a perfect summer day. That is not a place where one would expect this to happen. That is a sacred place in a way.”
Siembra NC said the operation was the largest in the state since the Department of Homeland Security and ICE arrested hundreds of people in late 2025 in Charlotte and the Triangle.
According to reporting from Enlace Latino NC, Wilson Creek is a popular summer recreation area for Latino families, especially for those from nearby Charlotte and Morganton.
Sandra Salazar is co-founder of Hands of Hope, which provides supplies and services to those in need, and Latinos Aventureros, an organization that connects the Latino community to the outdoors. She said her cousin’s partner was detained in the Wilson Creek operation, and she arrived at Wilson Creek after the operation was already underway.
“We were confused. There was a lot of panic going on,” Salazar said. “When we were able to go in, we started looking for people, and we saw people hiding behind trees. We saw people hiding in the middle of the water behind rocks, boulders. We saw people who had crossed the river with their children hiding because they didn't want to have that interaction with ICE agents.”
Faith leaders led the crowd in several prayers and songs in support of those who were detained.
“Help us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves,” Tracy Love, a pastor in Lenoir, told the crowd.
The crowd then joined in a caravan from the church to the site of the raid at Wilson Creek along Brown Mountain Beach Road.
Wuendy Rosales’ nephew was among those detained in the operation. On the banks of the creek, Rosales said many families come to the area to spend time with their families and connect with nature.
ICE claimed many of those arrested at Wilson Creek “had criminal records including driving under the influence (DUI) and illegal reentry,” according to a press release. DHS declined to release the names of the people who were detained, making it impossible for media organizations to confirm if those detained were in fact charged with crimes.
“I'm just here to tell everyone that my nephew is not a criminal and tell the law enforcement to stop chasing our community,” Rosales said. “Our community–they’re here to make a better life for their kids, for their family, and we are not criminals.”
Across the country, ICE’s partnerships with other law enforcement agencies enable raids like the one in Wilson Creek. In June, the North Carolina legislature overrode Gov. Josh’s Stein’s veto of a bill requiring state law enforcement agencies to cooperate with ICE.
“We don't think that is a good use of other agencies,” Malki said. “They're there to protect the national forest. They're there to steward them, to help folks to make sure that everyone is safe there and having people chaotically swim across the river to escape ICE agents is definitely not keeping people safe.”
Malki said Siembra NC has been able to verify the identities of four people who were detained and that they are being held in Georgia. Two of them had pending residencies or green cards and one of them is an asylum seeker, she said.
The community is shaken and scared, Malki said.
“I think it's heartbreaking, and it's an enormous loss to our state if thousands of immigrants feel like they cannot enjoy national forests,” Malki said.
Note: For additional and Spanish-language coverage, please visit EnlaceNC.
This article first appeared on NCLocal and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.