ICE targets arrests at Charlotte courthouse, other sensitive locations
Lately in Charlotte, ICE agents come wearing plain clothes — sometimes khakis or baseball caps. They wait outside apartments, workplaces, but mostly, courtrooms. They take people, put them in the back of unmarked vehicles and drive off. We’re unsure when we’ll hear from them again.
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It’s hard to confirm whether those arrested locally are all undocumented or if they committed violent crimes.
- ICE’s release of public information and cooperation with the media are limited. Local journalists often struggle to get answers from ICE when following up on cases. Families whose loved ones are detained must wait until an online database is updated to learn where they were taken, advocates say.
- “There seems to be an intentional ambiguity,” says Rusty Price, CEO of Camino, a health center supporting the Latino community in Charlotte.
Two Charlotte immigration lawyers tell Axios they are increasingly seeing and hearing of ICE deploying its newest tactic in the courthouse. Immigration cases are being dismissed, then ICE agents — no longer restrained by a pending court case — stop the defendants outside and make arrests, just moments after the hearing.
