Case Summary
A class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina on behalf of five individuals — four U.S. citizens and one U-visa holder — and a proposed class of people subjected to warrantless immigration arrests across North Carolina. Filed with the ACLU of North Carolina, the ACLU, and Democracy Forward, the suit asks the court to declare DHS’s warrantless-arrest policy unlawful and to permanently block ICE, CBP, and Border Patrol from continuing the practice.
Why It’s Important
In November 2025, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it would be sending U.S. Border Patrol agents to Charlotte, North Carolina. Just like in Chicago, Los Angeles, and elsewhere, federal immigration agents weren’t coming to “keep the peace.” They came to make people afraid, to break up families, and to send a message. Charlotte was the first Southern city targeted in this manner. SCSJ was, and remains, part of an ecosystem populated by directly impacted people, immigration and criminal justice advocates, non-profit organizations, faith communities, and ordinary, everyday citizens who quickly rallied, organized, and responded.
One response to “Operation Charlotte’s Web” has been litigation in federal court, where SCSJ is seeking accountability for immigration agents’ violent, unlawful tactics on behalf of those who were assaulted, detained, and arrested without legal justification.
Federal agents operating without accountability sets a dangerous precedent, one where any community, in any city, can be targeted with unlawful force and no consequence. This case is about more than the individuals who were harmed in Charlotte; it’s about whether immigration enforcement can operate outside the bounds of the Constitution, and whether communities across the South will have any legal recourse when it doesn’t.
