Summary:
- Trump’s “Charlotte’s Web” raids brought fear instead of safety, destabilizing Charlotte and the Triangle while failing to uncover the supposed wave of criminal undocumented immigrants.
- The crackdown severely damaged local economies, especially in East Charlotte, where federal agents’ presence led to business closures, empty storefronts, and major revenue losses.
- North Carolinians are paying the price twice through the economic harm to their communities and the tax dollars used to fund operations that undermine immigrant neighbors who strengthen our state.
After sending in federal forces to Washington, Portland, Los Angeles, Memphis, and New York to variably establish order and crack down on illegal immigration, the Trump Administration turned its eye further southward to Charlotte and the Research Triangle, with immigration raids by Customs and Border Patrol starting in mid-November.
Federal agents weren’t alone in descending upon these cities: the attention of the Department of Homeland Security, with the help of the Supreme Court permitting racial profiling and a concerted effort by the administration to ensure its immigration agenda is front and center in the news cycle, brings not only ICE and Border Patrol, but fear. Fear shocks and freezes entire communities and, as a result, the economies of these cities as well.
The Trump administration’s immigration policy has been marked by a desire to, according to former ICE Director under Obama, Sarah Saldaña, “instill fear” and to “scare people to death.” as videos of ICE raids, stories of ICE brutalizing and detaining citizens, and the memory of wrongful deportations hit the internet, the presence of ICE becomes cause for mass action by residents of all citizenship statuses to cooperate and protect their nieghbors.
Yet despite all of the aggressive promotion of immigration raids, the crackdown operation referred to as “Charlotte’s Web” does not appear to be actually achieving it’s stated goal of finding and deporting “criminal” undocumented immigrants in American cities.
While at least 370 people were arrested in the initial ICE crackdown in November, almost no information has been released about who they are. A November 17th press release (from one of the first days of the crackdown) from DHS cites 44 detainees with criminal records, some of which include shoplifting and driving with an expired registration.
As of this writing, DHS still has not released the names of the large majority of those 370 (or more) taken into custody. It thus remains impossible to tell whether the large majority of those arrested had any criminal record at all.
What we know for certain is that the “Charlotte’s Web” operation wreaked economic havoc in Charlotte, Raleigh and Durham. With masked federal agents patrolling the streets and hassling businesses, people of all citizenship statuses are discouraged from being out in public. This negatively impacts all commerce, but especially small businesses that rely on foot traffic, or those in immigrant communities.
The case of Manolo’s bakery illustrates this effect perfectly. After federal agents began stopping people by its entrance, its owner, Manolo Betancur, decided to close the business until he felt it was safe for customers to shop there again. Manolo’s bakery wasn’t alone. The Charlotte Ledger paints a picture of desolate pockets within the Queen City: “in east Charlotte and along South Boulevard, dozens of restaurants and shops are closed. Those that are open sit mostly empty.”
The effects in East Charlotte were dystopian. According to a business survey by CharlotteEAST cited in that Charlotte Ledger piece, 67% percent of businesses were closed for at least a day, with losses ranging from $500 a day to $5,000 a day. Construction as an industry also suffered, since immigrants make up about one in four workers. With Border Patrol agents arresting workers on the job, workers across Charlotte decided to stay home during the crackdown.
While the interconnectedness of the East Charlotte community means that the economic effects of the crackdown were felt much harder, the effects of the crackdown were felt citywide and are likely to last. While there have been celebrations over the apparent withdrawal of Border Patrol from Charlotte, CBP Commander Gregory Bovino seemed to indicate on X that they hadn’t left at all, and have no inclination to. Further, ICE very well may remain even if border patrol decides to withdraw, further depressing the local economy.
While organizations like CharlotteEAST are making an effort to revitalize the economy, the effects of the crackdown were estimated to last at least a quarter in East Charlotte, and any recovery can be undone by a follow-up crackdown. Chicago has been in this situation since their crackdown ended, with agents still conducting arrests, lawsuits winding their way through the system, and a continued chilling effect on small businesses.
Ultimately, we won’t have good data on the impact of these raids for some time, although if the silence on the actual number of criminals arrested is any indication, it wasn’t a success by that metric. Border Patrol and ICE have functioned as a large exogenous shock, hitting especially hard East Charlotte, but with ramifications for the entire city. However, one cost that is even less clear is the cost of the operation itself. Governor Stein and Congresswoman Alma Adams both sent letters to the Department of Homeland Security asking for transparency around the effects of the operation and its cost.
It’s worth remembering that the agents engaged in these crackdowns are ultimately paid for with our tax dollars. With billions being spent on immigration enforcement, the same force depressing our local economies is being paid for with tax dollars extracted from said economies. All in service of attacking undocumented immigrant communities that contribute millions of dollars to our state economy. Not only has the immigration crackdown been a betrayal of American values and a disservice to the communities that help make our state great, it’s also been bad for business.
