Lawsuit: ICE Action in N.C. Hasn’t Cooled 

Since the Trump administration’s heightened immigration enforcement in Charlotte last November, federal agents have escalated efforts to stop and arrest Latino residents without probable cause, according to an amended federal lawsuit filed late last week. The suit claims the activity resulted in a major “checkpoint” operation targeting Latinos this summer in a national forest area.

Several civil rights advocacy groups initially filed the suit in February, making it the first legal challenge to what the U.S. Department of Homeland Security dubbed “Operation Charlotte’s Web.” The groups, including the ACLU of North Carolina and Southern Coalition for Social Justice, filed an amended complaint on October 1 that claims agents are stopping people and asking them about their immigration status without reasonable suspicion of other illegal activity. The advocacy groups are also seeking to certify the lawsuit as a class action and are asking a judge for a preliminary injunction to stop what they allege are ICE agents’ unconstitutional immigration enforcement actions. 

The lawsuit now has six plaintiffs, five of whom are U.S. citizens. The newest plaintiff is Fernando Vazquez Orea, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen born in Raleigh who says he was wrongfully arrested in November 2025. The others are Willy Wender Aceituno, 47, a naturalized citizen from Honduras who has lived in Charlotte more than 25 years; Yoshi Cuenca Villamar, 23, who was born in North Carolina and lives in Charlotte; Edwin Godinez, 30, a U.S.-born citizen who lives in Spencer; Yair Alexander Napoles, 23, who was born in North Carolina and lives in Salisbury; and Ruben Arguera Lopez, 40, who has a valid work visa and a U-Visa, which are for victims of serious crimes or people who have aided law enforcement in investigating them.

In November 2025, Operation Charlotte’s Web brought hundreds of additional immigration agents to the Charlotte area and later Raleigh, Durham, and smaller cities like Salisbury. Over several weeks, federal agents arrested more than 1,100 people. It sparked widespread fear in immigrant communities, leading to record-breaking student absences and the closing of many businesses. The operation also spurred protests. 

It was a part of a nationwide immigration crackdown that President Donald Trump ordered after taking office for a second term. Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and other federal agencies used aggressive—and at times violent—tactics, which included smashing car windows, pulling people out of their cars, and slamming them to the ground. Federal immigration agents have shot at least 24 people since January 2025, including six who have died. Three were U.S. citizens. The family of one, Renee Good, has filed two federal lawsuits over her death in Minneapolis. 

The North Carolina lawsuit claims that Latino residents have continued to live under a constant fear of racial profiling and harassment. They’re afraid to leave their homes to get basic necessities, such as groceries, and have had to send their children to schools with notes attached to their backpacks that read, “I am a citizen.”  In the first six months of 2026, ICE arrested 5,000 people in North Carolina–more than double the number of people arrested during the same period last year. 

“North Carolinians should not have to live in fear that going to work, picking up food, or simply going about their daily lives could end in a racially motivated stop and unlawful immigration arrest,” Corina Scott, staff attorney for the ACLU of North Carolina, said in a statement. “Our clients are asking the Court to halt DHS’s policy of allowing immigration agents to disregard federal law and strip people of their freedom without any consideration of their identity or circumstances.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a statement Friday saying that immigration agents are following federal law and are only targeting people they know to be in the country illegally. 

“Law enforcement officers use ‘reasonable suspicion’ to investigate immigration status and probable cause to make arrests consistent with the statute and the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” the spokesperson said. 

The spokesperson also denied the claim agents have racially profiled Latinos, calling the allegation “disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE.” 

“What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S.—NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity,” he said. 

‘I Am Not Doing Well’ 

The amended lawsuit, however, highlights an incident that civil rights advocates say exemplifies agents’ unconstitutional harassment of Latinos. 

On July 26, ICE agents coordinated with the U.S. Forest Service and the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office to set up a checkpoint in Wilson Creek, a 49,000-acre wilderness area in Pisgah National Forest where people picnic, hike, kayak, and swim, including many Latino families. Agents arrested 13 people in what Siembra NC, a civil rights organization, described as the largest enforcement action since Operation Charlotte’s Web and the first within a national forest located in North Carolina. 

Among those arrested was Roman Antonio Rogel Alvarenga, a native of El Salvador who has lived in Charlotte for 10 years. In a sworn statement included with the amended lawsuit, he said he has a pending asylum application and a valid work permit. A week before his arrest, Alvarenga attended a mandated immigration court hearing, where a judge continued his case until late 2028. 

Alvarenga visited Wilson Creek with his family, including his 66-year-old mother, wife, sister, and three children ages 5, 3, and 1. At the checkpoint, he produced his driver’s license and registration. A park ranger gave that information to ICE agents, who immediately approached his car, the lawsuit alleges. 

The agents initially told Alvarenga that he was not allowed to be in the country if he did not have a green card. Then they told him that his asylum application had been denied–which was not true, the lawsuit said, as his application is still pending. 

The agents ordered Alvarenga out of the car and arrested him. His wife asked the agents to allow her and their children to come with them. The agents refused and told her the government would pay her to self-deport, even though the agents had no information about her immigration status, the lawsuit said. Alvarenga’s mother begged the agents not to take her son, but the agents pushed her, the lawsuit alleges. 

Alvarenga was taken to a detention center in Folkston, Georgia, where he remains, according to the lawsuit. 

Argenis Eduardo Torres Rosales, 32, was also detained in Pisgah. According to the lawsuit, Rosales, a Venezuelan native, came to the United States with his family under humanitarian parole. The lawsuit said he has a pending asylum application and a valid work permit, but agents told him he had no legal status and put him under arrest.

An ICE spokesperson later confirmed that it had arrested 13 people in the national forest, “many of whom had criminal histories, including DUI and illegal re-entry—a felony.” N.C. House Speaker Destin Hall praised the operation in a statement, saying that the people arrested had criminal records and a “history of endangering the public.” 

But ICE declined to identify the 13 people, making it difficult to know whether they had previous criminal charges or convictions. Rosales said in a sworn statement that he has no previous criminal record, and a check of online court records seems to confirm that. ICE agents transported him to the same detention center in Georgia where Alvarenga is being held. Rosales said he has been kept in a cell with 80 people; the conditions are horrible, and he is struggling, he said. 

“I cry often and tell my aunt and family that I am not doing well,” he said in the statement.  

Neither Rosales nor Alvarenga is listed as a plaintiff because the lawsuit is seeking class-action status. Homeland Security officials will have to respond, and a judge will ultimately decide whether to certify the lawsuit as a class action and grant the preliminary injunction. No trial date has been set.