ICE may send agents to Raleigh as soon as Sunday. What we know and don't know

Twumasi Duah-Mensah and Tammy Grubb, The News & Observer (Raleigh) on Nov 30, 2025

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The immigrant rights group Siembra NC says it has learned that ICE is deploying 50 agents to the Triangle on Sunday or Monday.

The group says ICE has reserved charter flights from Charlotte Douglas International Airport to Jacksonville International Airport in Florida, between Dec. 2 and Dec. 6 — similar to patterns the group observed during the Customs and Border Protection’s “Operation Charlotte’s Web.”

The News & Observer has not been able to independently confirm Siembra’s report. Siembra co-Director Nikki Marin Baena said the organization got its information from “a source that we trust, and we can’t say more about it than that.”

The N&O has reached out to ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for comment but has not received a response.

U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross, after speaking at a Saturday rally in Wendell advocating for the release of a local woman detained by the Border Patrol, said she had not heard anything directly about ICE coming to Raleigh.

Wake County Sheriff Willie Rowe said Saturday afternoon that his office had “not received any official notification from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

“However, if any operation or activity should occur, I kindly ask all residents to refrain from engaging or confronting ICE personnel and allow them to carry out their official duties,” Rowe said.

Siembra does not know if ICE will conduct “the snatch and grab Border Patrol operation that we just experienced in North Carolina,” Marin Baena said in a virtual news conference Sunday.

She noted in particular the effect that immigration sweeps are having on people’s lives and businesses across the state, and urged people to contact N.C. House Speaker Destin Hall’s office and his campaign donors.

“Businesses are being disrupted. Classrooms are being disrupted. Even people who have become naturalized U.S. citizens are doubting whether they are safe or thinking about what they need to do in the case of these operations,” Marin Baena said.

Hall told The News & Observer in a Nov. 19 interview that the U.S. Border Patrol arrests are the “direct result of some sheriffs … who decided they were not going to cooperate with ICE anymore.”

Last year, he led passage of a state law requiring sheriffs to verify the immigration status of people who are arrested, notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and hold someone who may be here illegally for up to 48 hours, so ICE can pick them up.

Federal agents are “doing a pretty good job,” Hall told The N&O. “We don’t have much to ask them other than to come back.”

Triangle sheriffs urged people in November to avoid confrontations with ICE and CBP agents that could cause injuries or arrests.

Siembra thinks, based on ICE activity in North Carolina this year, that federal arrests are more likely at:

—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices, during check-ins (The N&O previously reported on a Durham movie theater manager who was detained by ICE after a green card interview at the USCIS Durham office.)

—Local jails, if ICE has a detainer request for someone charged and held in custody by local law enforcement

—Traffic stops

—Workplaces

—Neighborhoods

—Probation appointments, especially at the end of someone’s probationary period.

At least two people were detained at a Charlotte apartment complex on Thanksgiving morning, Marin Baena confirmed. She urged the Hispanic community “to stay calm and to not spread rumors.” Siembra has volunteers working to confirm reports made to its hotline — 336-543-0353 — and is posting updates online at Ojo Obrero.

“This is a very credible report that we got, which is why we are going public with it at (this) time,” she said. “I hope that we’re wrong about it. I hope that these plans don’t happen, or that ICE changes their plans, (because) many people ... are still not feeling safe about leaving their homes.”

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