(NewsNation) — North Carolina is the latest state to unwillingly receive federal agents as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
North Carolina Republican Party chair Jason Simmons told “Morning in America” that Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are surging into cities such as Charlotte in response to nearly 1,400 detainers that North Carolina is expected to turn over.
He said local law enforcement officials are unwilling to work with ICE and that the deployments reflect Trump’s campaign promises.
“We want to ensure that what President Trump campaigned on — securing our border and making our cities safe — is what you’ll see continuing going on into these communities,” Simmons said.
Anderson Clayton, chair of the state’s Democratic Party, argued North Carolina should rely on local and state law enforcement rather than federal agents and told NewsNation the federal presence is “attacking communities” and leading to the detainment of U.S. citizens.
“People deserve to feel safe in their communities,” she said. We want to make sure people do, but it doesn’t look like attacking and arraigning U.S. citizens right now. “It’s making people less safe and less secure when they’re going to work, and when they’re going to school right now, and I don’t think anybody in our communities was asking for that.”
The federal government did not provide a full explanation for the operation, dubbed “Charlotte’s Web,” or how many people have been detained, but the Department of Homeland Security blamed the move on state officials, saying illegal immigrants fled to the Democratic-led city because of so-called sanctuary policies they believed would protect them.
A DHS news release included a list of migrants the agency called “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” who they say were released onto North Carolina streets because of those policies.
DHS did not specify how long the operation is expected to last, but it comes as federal agents were withdrawing from Chicago.
DHS issued a statement saying there have been too many victims of “illegal aliens” and that the Charlotte operation is meant to “ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed.”