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Customs and Border Patrol agents made an arrest on the grounds of a church in front of children in Charlotte as federal officers surged into the Democratic-led city for the Trump administration’s latest anti-immigration operation.
Immigration agents descended on North Carolina’s largest city over the weekend against fierce objections from local leaders, leading to the arrests of at least 81 people within one day, according to Gregory Bovino, a top border patrol official for Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
In one reported sting, agents turned up at a church in the east of the city Saturday as 15 to 20 churchgoers were doing yard work on the property and children were playing games, according to the Charlotte Observer.
The masked agents’ presence caused some of the churchgoers to run into the nearby woods, but officers detained one member of the group, according to the church’s pastor, who did not wish to be identified.
“They took one of the members of the church, they don’t ask nothing, they just took him,” the pastor told the newspaper. “One of these guys with immigration, he [said] he was going to arrest one of the other guys in the church. He pushed him.”
The pastor claimed the agents did not show any identification before they detained the suspect, whose wife and child were reportedly inside the church at the time.
Members of the church were aware the anti-immigration operation was starting this weekend, but believed they would be safe on church grounds, said 15-year-old Miguel Vazquez.
“We thought church was safe and nothing gonna happen,” Vazquez told the Observer. “But it did happen.”
The arrest appears to be one of the first instances where the Trump administration has deliberately entered church grounds to carry out anti-immigration enforcement.
The Independent has requested comment from the Department of Homeland Security.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been accused of violating First Amendment protections and infringing on religious freedoms after the Trump administration rescinded previous Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy that prohibited enforcement actions in sensitive locations such as places of worship, as well as schools and hospitals.
Faith leaders have hit back with lawsuits in recent months to stop immigration enforcement arrests in their places of worship.
Hundreds of demonstrators protested against Homeland Security’s so-called “Operation Charlotte’s Web” in marches across the city over the weekend.
Charlotte’s New Covenant AME Church, which was not believed to be targeted by CBP, is condemning the administration’s tactics.
“This is not a partisan issue —this is a humanitarian issue,” the church posted in a statement on social media.
“To witness individuals, including U.S. citizens, being snatched off the street and violently forced into vans is more than a travesty of justice; it is a violation of human dignity and a crime against humanity,” the statement added.
Elsewhere in the city, footage began circulating of Border Patrol agents questioning two workers hanging Christmas lights in a homeowner’s front yard.
The homeowner, Rheba Hamilton, filmed the agents speaking to the workers in Spanish, asking them which country they were from.
One agent told the workers, “If you are a citizen, there should be no problems,” and asked, “Do you know which country you are from, sir? Are you an American citizen?”
They did not respond, and the agents did not make any arrests.
The Trump administration’s mass deportation operations have seen a boost in ICE and border patrol agents in major Democratic-led cities with large immigrant populations in recent months, including Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland.
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Resident captures Border Patrol agents questioning garden workers in her garden
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