Charlotte Retailers Pinched as Immigration Crackdown Slows Workers

(CHARLOTTE, NC) A sweeping immigration crackdown known as Operation Charlotte’s Web has left businesses across Charlotte reeling, with shop owners, restaurant managers, and construction employers reporting empty storefronts, stalled projects, and workers too afraid to leave their homes. Launched over a weekend in November 2025, the operation led to more than 250 arrests in the city and has focused on immigrant neighborhoods, shaking confidence in one of North Carolina’s fastest‑growing urban economies.

Immediate effects on Central Avenue businesses

Along Central Avenue, a busy corridor lined with Latino, African, Asian, and Middle Eastern businesses, the change has been immediate and stark. Stores that are usually packed on weekends now sit half empty or closed altogether.

Handwritten signs appear in doorways and on windows, some reading “ICE is not welcome here”, as owners try to show solidarity with frightened customers and staff. Others simply say they are “closed for the day,” a coded message, residents say, meaning people are staying home until they feel streets are safe again.

Many of these shops are part of the roughly 400 small businesses supported by CharlotteEAST, a local nonprofit that works closely with immigrant entrepreneurs. According to its estimates, the financial cost of Operation Charlotte’s Web has climbed quickly:

• Small retail stores: losing about $400 per day
• Hair salons: about $500 per day
• Some restaurants: up to $5,000 per day

These are thin‑margin operations; a week of those losses can wipe out a month of profit, and owners say they don’t know how long they can hold on.

Construction and project delays

The impact stretches far beyond food and retail. Construction, one of Charlotte’s core industries and a major employer of immigrant labor, has been hit especially hard.

• Crews have shrunk overnight as workers who usually show up at dawn now stay inside, worried about both Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity reported near worksites and major roads.
• Faiz Fakery, owner of F2 Construction, said his “entire operation [is] grounded” because crews are hesitant to move around the city under current conditions.
• Projects on tight timelines are now delayed or paused, with concrete left to dry beside empty scaffolding and silent job sites.

Fear and uncertainty among workers (including those with legal status)

Immigrant workers with legal status are staying home too, according to business owners and community advocates. Many describe a climate where people feel they cannot trust that their documents will protect them if they are stopped.

Rumors about mobile checkpoints and unmarked vehicles spread quickly through WhatsApp groups and neighborhood chats, even when they can’t always be confirmed. The result is the same: fewer workers on the job and fewer customers in stores.

Employers say they understand that fear and don’t want to pressure people, but they also worry their businesses may not survive if Operation Charlotte’s Web continues at the same intensity.

“Entire operation [is] grounded” — Faiz Fakery, F2 Construction

Changes to daily routines and community life

Across Central Avenue and nearby areas, the visible presence of officers has changed daily routines. Community members describe Border Patrol agents in paramilitary‑style gear moving through neighborhoods where families often walk to grocery stores, laundromats, and bus stops.

• Parents say they are reconsidering simple errands, unsure what their children might see or what questions they might ask if someone is detained nearby.
• Some residents described the feeling as “panic,” noting that not just those without legal status are scared, but entire families — including U.S.‑born children and relatives with green cards or citizenship.

Business adaptations to keep customers and staff safe

To keep at least part of their customer base, a few businesses have started offering free home delivery so people do not have to risk leaving their houses.

• Restaurant workers arrange drop‑offs to familiar addresses.
• Small groceries send staff with bags of food instead of waiting for shoppers who may never come.
• Owners say they lose money on gas and time, but they hope this keeps relationships alive until people feel safe enough to return in person.
• Others have shortened their hours or moved staff to back rooms, ready to close shutters quickly if word spreads of enforcement nearby.

By midday on what would normally be a busy weekday, some Central Avenue shops report seeing only a fraction of their usual customers. A few said they had seen almost no one walk through the door — an unheard‑of situation for this part of the city.

Economic ripple effects

That drop in foot traffic quickly ripples outward. When people stay home to avoid an immigration sweep, they also skip buying gas, coffee, snacks, and other small items that usually support a web of local businesses.

Economists watching the region say this pattern is likely to create a short‑term drag on Charlotte’s economy, especially in areas built on daily, in‑person spending.

Local analysts stress that the longer‑term impact of Operation Charlotte’s Web is still unclear:

1. If the enforcement push is brief, most businesses may slowly regain customers, though some may not survive the shock.
2. If it continues or expands, employers could start moving jobs or investment away from affected corridors, seeing them as less stable.

According to analysis by VisaVerge.com, similar crackdowns in other cities have tended to weaken trust between immigrant communities and authorities, sometimes for years, even after official operations have ended. That lack of trust can influence whether people report crimes, participate in schools, or feel safe going to hospitals, with wide social effects.

Official response and community concerns

Federal officials defend the operation. The Department of Homeland Security has said that all individuals arrested during the immigration crackdown had violated immigration laws, framing the effort as enforcing existing rules rather than targeting a specific group.

On its public site, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security describes immigration enforcement as focusing on people who are in the country without permission or who have broken other laws. In Charlotte, however, community leaders and residents argue that the reality on the ground feels very different from that policy language.

Advocates and business owners say Latino residents appear to be bearing the brunt of Operation Charlotte’s Web, whether or not they have legal status. They accuse officers of racial profiling, saying Latino families are more likely to be stopped, questioned, or followed.

• Some describe cars with Latino drivers being pulled over while similar vehicles with white or Black drivers pass by.
• These accounts are hard to verify in real time, but they echo concerns raised in other cities where enforcement concentrated in neighborhoods with high immigrant populations, even when officials insisted race and ethnicity were not factors.

Community identity and belonging at stake

For many in Charlotte’s immigrant communities, this moment goes beyond economics and touches on a sense of belonging. Central Avenue and surrounding streets have long served as a landing spot for new arrivals — a place where people can speak Spanish, Amharic, Arabic, or Vietnamese, send money home, and find food from their countries.

Owners say that seeing those same streets transformed by heavily armed agents is emotionally jarring. One local organizer described it as a feeling that:

“the city doesn’t want us here anymore,”

even though many families have lived, worked, and paid taxes in Charlotte for years.

Local response efforts and limitations

City officials and local nonprofits are under pressure to respond, though their authority over federal immigration actions is limited. Groups like CharlotteEAST are trying to document the financial damage and share information on rights during encounters with immigration officers.

• Lawyers are advising businesses to tell workers that having proper documents on hand may help, but they also admit no advice can fully remove the fear people feel when they see Border Patrol vehicles on streets where their children play.
• Community meetings have drawn residents who want to know how long Operation Charlotte’s Web might last, but so far they have not received clear answers.

The human cost and the uncertain road ahead

In the meantime, the daily reality for many Charlotte residents is one of waiting, watching, and choosing between income and safety. Employers say they don’t blame workers who stay home, even when that decision leaves them short‑staffed and struggling.

• Families are trying to stretch savings and cut back on anything that isn’t essential in case the immigration crackdown continues.
• On Central Avenue, the bright signs and colorful storefronts remain, but behind many of them are worried faces, quiet kitchens, and balance sheets that get worse with each passing day of enforcement.