Immigration arrests have doubled in North Carolina

Federal agents have so far arrested 6,374 people in North Carolina under Trump’s mass deportation effort.

Welcome back to Down from DC, where we follow decisions made by our elected officials in DC and explain how they affect our lives here in NC.

Sometimes federal policy plays out quietly, without a lot of fanfare. That’s exactly how President Trump’s crackdown on immigration is now happening in North Carolina. Deportations surged last fall during “Operation Charlotte’s Web.” But once that ended, arrests continued in counties across the state. Jacob Biba and Lex Clay Alfonso with NC Local dug into the data last month. We are sharing that work with you today.

But before we get to that, a note: Earlier this year, I (Phoebe) spoke with the Reynolda Rotary Club here in Winston-Salem about our work at Down from DC. People were especially interested in how we evaluate the news sources we link to for independence, accuracy and the other ethical standards we expect of reliable news sources.

I’d love to continue having those conversations, so if you’re part of a civic organization, book club or any other group that would like to explore any of these issues with me, let me know. You can email me at downfromdc@gmail.com. I always like a good excuse for a road trip.

There were more than 6,300 ICE arrests in NC since Trump took office

By Jacob Biba and Lex Clay Alfonso

Federal immigration enforcement agents have arrested more than 6,300 people in North Carolina since President Donald Trump took office again last January, according to data obtained by the University of California Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project and analyzed by NC Local. The figure is nearly twice the number of immigration arrests made in North Carolina during the previous two years combined.

Arrest data collected through March 10, 2026 shows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recorded 6,374 total arrests across the state, with arrests peaking in November with 776 recorded arrests. That same month, the Trump administration launched “Charlotte’s Web,” a U.S. Customs and Border Protection-led operation targeting “criminal illegal aliens” in the Charlotte area. Most of the people arrested in the weeks during and after the surge had never been convicted of a crime, an NC Local analysis found.

Arrests declined following the operation. In December, 600 ICE arrests were recorded in North Carolina. In January, the same month federal agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, 612 arrests were recorded. And in February, immigration agents arrested 576 people across North Carolina, according to the data.

Despite the decline, these monthly totals were still higher than arrest numbers before “Charlotte’s Web” when monthly arrests averaged 426 over the previous three months.

Nationwide, ICE arrests have more than quadrupled as of January, compared to the last six months of the Biden administration. Most arrested under Trump did not have a criminal conviction, despite officials’ claims that ICE was targeting the “worst of the worst.”

Where in North Carolina is ICE arresting people?

In North Carolina, the majority of ICE arrests have been concentrated in the Charlotte and Triangle areas. Still, arrests were recorded across the state, the rate of which has increased in the last five months, data showed.

Graphic by Lex Clay Alfonso. See the interactive version here.

In Buncombe County, where Asheville is located, immigration agents had arrested 52 people through March 10, with all but one arrest occurring at the county jail. The number of arrests more than tripled over the last five months, coinciding with a new state law, “The Criminal Illegal Alien Enforcement Act,” that went into effect Oct. 1. The law forces local law enforcement agencies to work more closely with ICE.

Approximately two thirds of the arrests statewide were from local jails, state and federal prisons, and other “lockups,” according to the data.

In Henderson County, where the county’s sheriff’s office participates in ICE’s 287(g) program, more than 200 people have been arrested.

In New Hanover County, where Wilmington is located, 150 arrests have been recorded. In Dare County, in the northeastern part of the state, immigration agents have arrested 16 people.

More than 100 people have been arrested in Forsyth County, in the Piedmont. In neighboring Guilford County, where ICE is reportedly considering opening a detention center, the agency recorded 62 arrests.

In Gaston and Cabarrus counties, both of which border Mecklenburg County, where Charlotte is located, more than 200 arrests have been made in each county.

Who is ICE arresting in North Carolina?

It is still unclear the identities of ICE arrestees in North Carolina. ICE, CBP and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both agencies, have not fulfilled several NC Local records requests seeking more information on those arrested.

But data indicates the overwhelming majority of people immigration agents have arrested were men. Most ICE arrestees were from Latin American countries, like Mexico and Honduras, and ranged in age from as young as 2 years old to 75 years old.

Immigration agents have arrested more than 50 children, according to data. Based on matching apprehension dates, locations and citizenship countries, at least 34 appear to have been arrested alongside women. More than 30 of these arrests occurred in the Charlotte area, data showed.

Read more about the data visualizations and their sources here. Data visualizations created by Lex Clay Alfonso for NC Local.

We are grateful to NC Local for making such work available for reprint. If you want to read more of NC Local’s work on immigration enforcement, you can find it here.

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