Federal officials in the United States have confirmed that an immigration crackdown is under way in North Carolina’s largest city, Charlotte, as agents were seen making arrests in multiple locations.

In a statement on Saturday, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the Trump administration was deploying officers to Charlotte to fight crime by undocumented migrants.

“Americans should be able to live without fear of violent criminal illegal aliens hurting them, their families, or their neighbors,” McLaughlin said.

“We are surging DHS [Department of Homeland Security] law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed.”

The operation in Charlotte is the latest immigration crackdown by President Donald Trump’s administration in a city led by Democrats.

In recent months, the Republican president has ordered major pushes in cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, DC.

The mayor of Charlotte, Vi Lyles, and other officials condemned the operation on Saturday, saying in a statement that the actions were “causing unnecessary fear and uncertainty”.

“We want people in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County to know we stand with all residents who simply want to go about their lives,” said the statement, which was also signed by County Commissioner Mark Jerrell and Stephanie Sneed of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg education board.

‘A lot of Latinos running’

Charlotte is a racially diverse city of more than 900,000 residents, including more than 150,000 who are foreign-born, according to local officials.

Crime is down in the city this year through August, compared with the same months in 2024. Homicides, rapes, robberies and motor vehicle thefts fell by more than 20 percent, according to the consulting firm, AH Datalytics.

But the Trump administration has seized upon the fatal stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light-rail train in August to argue that Democratic-led cities fail to protect residents. A man with a lengthy criminal record has been charged with the woman’s murder.

The federal government had not previously announced the push in Charlotte. But Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden said earlier this week that two federal officials had told him that customs agents would be arriving soon.

Residents of the city reported being subject to arrest and seeing an increase in Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents pulling people over since Friday.

Willy Aceituno, a 46-year-old Honduran-born US citizen, told The Associated Press (AP) news agency that he was on his way to work on Saturday when he saw “a lot of Latinos running”, chased by “a lot of Border Patrol agents”.

Aceituno said he himself was stopped – twice – by Border Patrol agents. During the second encounter, they forced him from his vehicle after breaking the window and threw him to the ground.

“I told them, ‘I’m an American citizen,’” he told the AP. “They wanted to know where I was born, or they didn’t believe I was an American citizen.”

After being forcibly taken into a Border Patrol vehicle, Aceituno said, he was finally released after showing documents proving his citizenship. He had to walk some distance back to his car and later filed a police report over the broken glass.

Trump’s administration has defended federal enforcement crackdowns in cities like Los Angeles and Chicago as necessary for fighting crime and enforcing immigration laws. The drive to deport millions of immigrants, however, has prompted allegations of rights abuses and myriad lawsuits.

North Carolina Governor Josh Stein, a Democrat with a Republican-majority legislature, said on Friday that the vast majority of those detained in these operations have no criminal convictions, and some are American citizens.

He urged people to record any “inappropriate behavior” they see and notify local law enforcement about it.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department also emphasised ahead of time that it isn’t involved in federal immigration enforcement.

Officials in Charlotte also said fears about the crackdown have led to some businesses closing temporarily.

Greg Asciutto, executive director of the community development group CharlotteEast, told the AP via email that “significant border patrol activity” was seen on Saturday.

He described most of the actions as “extremely quick, targeted arrests”, while others “have been them ‘fishing’”, referring to less targeted encounters.

Asciutto added that many businesses in his part of town were closed and “we’re brainstorming ways to keep them afloat, as we don’t know how long this is going to last”.

In east Charlotte, JD Mazuera Arias, a City Council member, was among a group standing watch outside a Latin American bakery.

Arias told the AP that another bakery nearby closed for fear of the crackdown, showing the harm to livelihoods and the economy.

“This is Customs and Border Patrol. We are not a border city, nor are we a border state. So why are they here?” he said. “This is a gros” violation of constitutional rights for not only immigrants but for US citizens.” (Al Jazeera)