Charlotte, North Carolina, is a\u00a0peaceful,\u00a0rapidly growing city of more than 960,000\u00a0souls. Her population is diverse:\u00a0approximately 60\u00a0percent\u00a0are\u00a0white, 22 percent Black, 11 percent Hispanic, 4 percent Asian, and 3 percent\u00a0scattered among a wide array of others. \u00a0It is\u00a0a\u00a0peaceful city,\u00a0a\u00a0great place\u00a0to raise a family.<\/p>\n
But much of Charlotte\u2019s growth has been spurred by international migration, especially from Latin America. She also is largely a Democratic city. \u00a0Those two factors made it an ideal target for Donald Trump\u2019s Department of Homeland Security. \u00a0DHS would use it as a city into which it would send masked agents to find and arrest all the undocumented, brown-skinned people it could.<\/p>\n
The agents arrived Saturday, and that afternoon my daughter, Laura J. Meier, a county commissioner in\u00a0Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) who is staying close to the situation, sent this email to the family:<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are literally stopping people because they are brown. \u00a0They are driving through neighborhoods walking onto private property where lawn workers are working.\u00a0\u00a0They stopped a guy twice within 10 minutes \u2013 a citizen for six years. \u00a0Smashed his windshield. \u00a0Driving around Latino businesses. \u00a0All masked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Violence was not rare.\u00a0\u00a0The manager of a popular grocery store said five of his brown-skinned employees were bringing carts back into the building when several SUVs stopped in front of them. \u00a0Some of the employees panicked and ran, and the ones who didn\u2019t were arrested. \u00a0Two border patrol agents entered the store and, while other employees and customers were yelling, dragged an employee in his twenties outside the store, pinned his face into the concrete, and then put him in the back of their vehicle. The agents took two other employees from the store before they drove away. \u00a0In another case, A woman with her hands cuffed behind her back was filmed being pulled out of a building despite her screaming that she was an American citizen. \u00a0Other similar cases were reported. By the time night fell, 81 people had been arrested.<\/p>\n
As a result of the agents\u2019 raids, a weekend-long flea market that is typically filled with Hispanic vendors was canceled.\u00a0\u00a0Nightclubs that play reggaeton music on Saturday nights remained shuttered.\u00a0\u00a0Businesses suffered as shoppers stayed home. And Sunday morning, Catholic churches that tend to have many immigrant parishioners, were unusually empty.<\/p>\n
Before\u00a0Saturday ended,\u00a081 brown-skinned people, including American citizens, had been arrested. \u00a0An immigrant rights group said the tally, reported by a senior Border Patrol official on social media, was the largest number of immigrant arrests in the\u00a0state\u2019s recent history.<\/p>\n
The attacks\u00a0kept up Sunday,\u00a0and\u00a0with\u00a0Sunday afternoon came another email from Laura to the family:
\n\u201cMy\u00a0house sitter is from\u00a0Colombia\u00a0and I just got home and she got so weepy with me. She has a friend who lives in an apartment on Albermarle\u00a0Road,\u00a0and she\u00a0said ICE\u00a0agents are\u00a0all in the parking\u00a0lot\u00a0and\u00a0they feel like\u00a0obviously\u00a0they\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0leave. \u00a0She said that she carries her papers with her, but\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0not asking for identification and she is terrified. \u00a0I told her if\u00a0anyone feels\u00a0unsafe\u00a0I have space!\u00a0\u00a0Including her! \u00a0She\u2019s\u00a0a citizen. \u00a0Her son is a Marine!\u00a0\u00a0And\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0terrified!\u201d<\/p>\n
Matters got worse Monday. \u00a0Christopher Lakin, a retired Charlotte physician, notified friends that there was an ugly ICE incident in front of his house in\u00a0midmorning.<\/p>\n
Two women\u00a0\u2013 not migrants —\u00a0had been shadowing an ICE patrol, blowing whistles to alert people of ICE being in the area. \u00a0At some point the women pulled in front of the caravan and then drove away.\u00a0\u00a0Lakin\u00a0later learned one of the women was facing surgery the next day and could not afford to be arrested, and\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0why they were leaving.<\/p>\n
\u201cICE pursued them and they ended up on our\u00a0dead-end\u00a0street … and pulled into a driveway across the street from us. ICE ordered them out of the\u00a0car\u00a0and they refused (and were calling CMPD at the same time\u00a0— who never came). \u00a0An ICE agent then smashed the driver\u2019s car window. The women were removed from the car, zip tied, arrested for obstruction, and taken away to \u2018the\u00a0FBI facility.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAll but one of the agents were masked. One of them said, \u2018People are out here interfering with us. We\u2019re trying to round up the dirtbags.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n