Immigration Agents Target Grocery Stores, Detain Farmworkers
November 21, 2025 | Source: Civil Eats | by Lisa Held
November 21, 2025 – Federal agents with the U.S. Border Patrol left Charlotte, North Carolina, Thursday, after joining Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in an immigration crackdown that caused grocery stores and restaurants to shut their doors.
Agents arrived in Charlotte last weekend and expanded their presence to the Raleigh-Durham area on Tuesday. Since then, local immigrant advocacy group Siembra NC has documented agents patrolling supermarket parking lots. On Saturday, the owner of an international grocery store in Charlotte said agents raided his store and detained three workers.
“Border Patrol’s operation in Charlotte-Mecklenburg was an inhumane and unnecessary campaign of terror that disrupted the lives of our entire community,” Representative Alma Adams (D-North Carolina) said in a statement Thursday.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) called the North Carolina operation “a major win” for residents, and said individuals with “extensive immigration and criminal histories” were among the 250 people arrested.