Federal Agents Arrest 200+ Immigrants in Charlotte: Operation Charlotte

(Charlotte, North Carolina) Federal agents arrested more than 200 immigrants in Charlotte over a three-day span beginning Saturday, November 15, 2025, in a sweeping enforcement action that has emptied streets, shuttered businesses and deepened tensions across North Carolina’s largest city.

The large-scale operation, led by the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), was code-named Operation Charlotte’s Web and focused on heavily immigrant neighborhoods. By Tuesday, November 18, 2025, a CBP spokesperson confirmed that

“the number of people arrested over the past three days in Charlotte has passed 200,”

and officials said the operation was still underway, with the total likely to climb further.

Arrests began over the weekend and continued into Monday, hitting workplaces, supermarkets and small shops that serve immigrant communities. CBP said more than 200 people had been detained between Saturday and Monday alone, with 130 people detained in the first two days, including at least one person identified as an MS-13 gang member. While authorities highlighted that some of those taken into custody had criminal records, local advocates and lawyers said the majority were accused only of being in the country illegally, with no other offenses on their record.

Residents and business owners described a city on edge as Operation Charlotte’s Web unfolded largely without warning. Witnesses reported that unmarked cars carrying masked officers moved through neighborhoods, stopping abruptly to detain people on sidewalks, in parking lots and outside stores. Some pedestrians were “grabbed” off the street with no explanation, according to multiple accounts from those who said they watched the arrests happen at close range.

Few places felt the impact more directly than Manolo’s Bakery, a long-standing fixture in one of Charlotte’s immigrant corridors. Its owner, Manolo Betancur, said he watched people being taken away near his shop and quickly decided he could not keep his doors open while Federal agents were operating so aggressively around his customers and staff.

“People were being thrown to the ground and detained without warning — it was terror, it was inhumane,”

said Betancur, who has run the bakery for nearly three decades. He closed the business for the first time in almost 30 years, saying he felt he had no choice after families began “disappearing overnight.”

Betancur’s decision rippled through the neighborhood. Other immigrant-run businesses followed, pulling down metal shutters and switching off lights as word spread that plainclothes officers were circulating in unmarked vehicles. Lawyers and community leaders described “unprecedented fear” as people who normally filled the sidewalks and bus stops chose to stay indoors, skip work and keep children home from school rather than risk running into Federal agents.

By Monday, sections of Charlotte that are usually busy with construction crews, restaurant workers and shoppers were described by residents as “emptied out” and “paralyzed by fear.” Construction projects stalled as laborers did not show up, either because they feared arrest themselves or because family members had already been detained. Grocery stores and small retail shops that cater to immigrants reported sharp drops in customers, and some closed altogether for the day.

The community’s anxiety was not only about the scale of Operation Charlotte’s Web, but also about who was being targeted and how little information was publicly available. CBP acknowledged that it had not released a full list of names or any detailed breakdown by nationality, age or gender as of November 19, 2025. Officials said only that the operation was ongoing and that more arrests were possible. That lack of transparency has left families scrambling to find missing relatives and has pushed local advocacy groups to demand more information from the Department of Homeland Security.

Attorneys working with affected families said that in many cases, relatives did not know where their loved ones had been taken, what charges they faced or when they might appear before an immigration judge. With no public roster of detainees, community organizations began creating their own spreadsheets based on phone calls and messages from frantic spouses, parents and co-workers who said someone had failed to come home or had vanished from a job site.

Outside Manolo’s Bakery and other locations linked to the raids, the enforcement surge quickly turned into a flashpoint for a wider political and moral debate over immigration enforcement in Charlotte. Emotional protests and counter-protests broke out, bringing together immigrants, long-time residents, activists and supporters of tougher border controls. For some, the sight of Federal agents arresting large numbers of immigrants in a short period of time was proof that the government was finally acting on longstanding promises to enforce immigration laws more aggressively. For others, the images and reports of people being pinned to the ground and taken away in unmarked vehicles were evidence of racial targeting and a disturbing escalation in tactics.

On one side of the street, demonstrators held signs denouncing Operation Charlotte’s Web as an attack on families and small businesses, chanting that the raids were tearing communities apart. On the other, counter-protesters insisted that Federal agents were doing their job and focused on people who had broken the law, whether by entering the country unlawfully or by committing crimes after arrival. Those backing the operation often pointed to reports that at least one MS-13 member was among the 130 people detained in the first 48 hours as justification for such sweeping action.

Inside the neighborhoods most affected, however, the line between those with criminal records and those without felt far less clear. Residents described mixed-status households where U.S. citizen children, undocumented parents and relatives with temporary status all lived under one roof. When Federal agents arrived, they said, that complexity often did not matter in the moment. Parents vanished from homes, workers disappeared from jobs, and friends stopped answering their phones. The fear spread well beyond those who believed they might be direct targets, reaching people with legal status who worried about being caught up in the operation by mistake.

The visible tactics used during Operation Charlotte’s Web are adding to that fear. Accounts of masked officers in unmarked cars have been particularly unsettling for many immigrants, some of whom left countries where similar methods were associated with political crackdowns, disappearances or police abuse. The image of people “being thrown to the ground and detained without warning” has circulated widely on social media and in local Spanish-language chat groups, amplifying the sense of crisis even among those who did not witness arrests firsthand.

For Charlotte’s economy, which relies heavily on immigrant labor in sectors such as construction, hospitality and food service, the immediate impact has been to slow or halt work across multiple sites. Contractors reported that crews arrived short-handed or not at all as Operation Charlotte’s Web entered its third day. Restaurant owners complained of staff shortages and empty tables. Some said they worried the effects would persist long after Federal agents left, as trust between immigrants and public authorities eroded and people reconsidered whether to stay in the city.

Local advocacy groups have responded by organizing legal clinics, hotlines and “know your rights” sessions to advise immigrants on what to do if approached by Federal agents. They are also pressing city and county officials to push for more detailed information from CBP about who has been detained, where they are being held and what legal process they will face. With no official breakdown yet available, even basic questions about whether most detainees will be held locally, transferred to other states or moved toward deportation remain unanswered.

At the same time, supporters of strict enforcement argue that such operations are necessary to send a clear message that immigration laws will be applied and that those living in the United States without authorization face real consequences. They view the arrest of an MS-13 member among the 130 people detained early in the operation as emblematic of why large-scale enforcement is needed, even if it causes disruption and fear. In their view, the responsibility for that disruption lies not with Federal agents but with those who violated immigration laws in the first place.

Operation Charlotte’s Web has laid bare the divide in Charlotte over how immigration enforcement should look in practice. On paper, the operation is part of a broader federal strategy to locate and arrest people who are in the country illegally, particularly those with criminal histories. On the ground, it has meant unmarked cars, masked officers, workplaces on edge, schools half-empty and entire blocks that residents describe as “emptied out” and “paralyzed by fear.”

As of November 19, 2025, CBP had still not released a comprehensive accounting of the more than 200 people arrested since Saturday. Without names, charges or timelines, Charlotte’s immigrant neighborhoods remain in limbo, waiting to see whether Federal agents will return to their streets and whether more of their neighbors will disappear in the days ahead. For families already missing a parent, a sibling or a co-worker, the numbers and code names attached to Operation Charlotte’s Web offer little comfort. What they see instead are closed shopfronts, unfinished buildings and empty chairs at the dinner table, as a federal operation reshapes daily life in their city in a matter of days.