ICE makes arrests in Charlotte (WBTV-NC)

ICE makes arrests in Charlotte 
Wednesday, February 8th 2017, 11:07 am EST
Wednesday, February 8th 2017, 12:50 pm EST
By WBTV Web Staff

 CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - Social media messages Tuesday claimed immigration and customs enforcement agents were conducting raids in Charlotte, randomly stopping people trying to eventually deport them.

ICE confirmed it made two arrests but said the rest is a bad rumor.

We spoke to a friend of the two men who got arrested.

Silvia Sanchez says her husband stayed home sick, but had he gone to work, he too may have been arrested.

Sanchez told us the two men arrested were driving her husband’s van to work. Not far behind was another co-worker. She says that co-worker saw everything.

He told her the van was being followed by four cars with ICE officials in them, adding, “When they arrived to their apartments, they surrounded them, took their phones and took their fingerprints.”

Byron Martinez an activist at Unidos We Stand says no matter how many people were arrested, he thinks the situation is getting worse.

Sanchez says it’s concerning… her husband is a legal citizen.

“The van is at the name of my husband nothing to do with the men taken….his papers are in order.”

She also says the community believes the arrests weren’t targeted and many people are on high alert.

ICE sent us an official statement saying “"Every day, as part of routine targeted enforcement operations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Fugitive Operations teams arrest criminal aliens and other individuals who are in violation of our nation's immigration laws.” They did not comment on the multiple other’s alleged arrests.

ICE says the men arrested had prior DUI convictions in NC.