The Trump administration is reportedly planning to send Border Patrol agents to Charlotte, North Carolina, and New Orleans for immigration roundups. The new assignments follow a similar operation in Chicago that led to thousands of arrests.
According to reports, federal agents will start in Charlotte before moving to New Orleans. Gregory Bovino, who has led agents in Chicago, will continue to lead the group, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will remain in Chicago.
Local authorities said they were not told about any federal operations in Charlotte and have not been in contact with federal officials regarding the deployment. The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office requested that Customs and Border Patrol communicate with local authorities before conducting any activities, according to a statement.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, declined to comment on “future or potential operations,” The New York Times reported. However, she said, “Every day, DHS enforces the laws of the nation across the country.”
Why is the Border Patrol leaving Chicago?
Bovino’s departure from Chicago comes after U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis called him out for using tear gas against protesters. He had initially told Ellis he used tear gas against protesters after someone threw a rock at him. However, he later acknowledged that the protester threw the rock after he deployed tear gas.
Ellis issued a preliminary injunction blocking the use of force against protesters and journalists. She ordered that agents could only use force if it was “objectively necessary to stop an immediate threat of the person causing serious bodily injury or death to another person.”
The Trump administration is appealing the injunction and is seeking a delay in enforcement while the appeal is under consideration.
However, it’s unclear whether the decision to pull Border Patrol out of Chicago was due to the recent court decision. Trump has publicly discussed sending federal agents to other cities.
“Do we go to Chicago?” Trump said in September. “Do we go to a place like New Orleans, where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that’s become quite, you know, quite tough, quite bad?”
For Charlotte, many have cited the killing of Iryna Zarutska on a commuter train as justification for a crime crackdown in the city. However, according to the Charlotte Police Department, violent crime in North Carolina’s biggest city has decreased by 20% in the past year. According to an Axios report, violent crime in New Orleans has also significantly decreased.
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