Why are US border agents in Charlotte, and are they allowed to operate there? | Charlotte
What’s going on in Charlotte?
North Carolina’s largest city is being rocked by a series of immigration raids that have led to more than 100 arrests and sparked alarm and protests.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection called it Operation Charlotte’s Net, and border agents were seen near churches, apartment complexes and stores. Hardline Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino was also seen leading agents in a similar effort in Chicago and Los Angeles.
Weekend, Bovino – known for his posts highly stylized videos implementation of enforcement actions – promoted his work on X. “From border towns to the Queen City, our agents go where the mission calls,” he said, referring to Charlotte.
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein criticized the crackdown as merely “mongering fear.”
Why are we seeing more border agents in US cities?
The Border Patrol, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, consists of approximately 60,000 agents, making it the largest law enforcement agency in the country.
The department has long had authority to patrol the interior, but until recently it was extremely rare to see agents straying far from the southwestern border. But in Donald Trump’s second term, agents have become foot soldiers everywhere in the administration’s mass deportation agenda.
Under a 1946 law, Border Patrol agents have the ability to conduct warrantless searches up to a “reasonable distance,” or 100 miles, from any international border. These boundaries include international land borders as well as coastlines; so, in fact, their range covers most of the major cities of the USA, including LA, New York, and Washington DC. Cities like Chicago fall within this 100-mile zone because the Great Lakes are considered a maritime border.
Almost two-thirds of the US population lives in this region.
Can the Border Patrol operate in places like Charlotte that are not close to the border?
The short answer is yes.
That’s according to Deborah Anthony, a legal studies professor at the University of Illinois Springfield who has expertise in constitutional law and the legality of Border Patrol operations. He explains that up to 100 miles from an international border or the U.S. coastline, the Border Patrol operates with expanded authority that other law enforcement agencies do not have. Within this framework, agencies can manage immigration checkpoints that require every driver to stop, even if there is no reasonable suspicion, and board buses for immigration investigations, for example.
But when agents move outside the 100-mile perimeter, Border Patrol loses those exemptions and must abide by the same constitutional limits as other law enforcement agencies. For example, agents cannot indiscriminately stop cars or pedestrians or set up checkpoints.
They also cannot detain or question people without reasonable suspicion of an immigration violation. To arrest or detain someone, Border Patrol agents, like other law enforcement officers, will need probable cause. Therefore, if agents in Charlotte stopped, detained people without cause, or operated checkpoints inland without reasonable suspicion, that would technically be a violation of the constitution.
“I think their presence in Charlotte is something the community needs to pay close attention to, because whether they are operating legally or not depends on the way things are going,” Anthony said.
Who is Greg Bovino, the border chief in charge of these efforts?
Until recently, he was an unheralded regional Border Patrol agent from Southern California. But since the summer, Bovino, 55, He has become the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and now Charlotte.
Bovino, a 29-year Border Patrol veteran who officially heads the El Centro sector in Southern California, frequently broadcasts his operations in social media videos that resemble action movies.
Bovino is not without controversy: He has faced criticism for making misleading statements about immigration raids and triggered Border Patrol operations in Chicago and Los Angeles lawsuits on the use of force, including its widespread deployment chemical agents.
A federal judge last month ordered Bovino to appear in court regularly with updates on operations in the city in an effort to create greater oversight over the Trump administration’s militaristic crackdown on immigrants. Bovino was also ordered to obtain a body camera and complete training on the use of the body camera.
New York Times in August reported He said two undocumented people died trying to escape from Bovino’s agents. Following a raid on Home Depot, a Mexican farm worker fell from a greenhouse and a Guatemalan day laborer was hit by a vehicle.
What does it say about the scope of Border Patrol operations?
In response to Guardian questions about the Border Patrol’s operations in Charlotte, DHS deputy secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: “While the US Border Patrol operates primarily within 100 air miles of the border, the legal framework provided by the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), title 8, title 19 of the US Code, and other statutes allows them to operate anywhere in the United States.”
He added: “Their ability to operate across the country ensures that Border Patrol can enforce immigration laws, combat smuggling, and address national security threats anywhere in the United States, and that immigration enforcement is not limited to border areas where individuals who evade detection at the border can still be apprehended.”
But lawyers and human rights advocates said agents trained to thwart illegal entry, drug smugglers and human traffickers at country borders may not be suitable to conduct civilian immigration enforcement in urban communities.
“The Border Patrol has certainly been quite arrogant and historically very aggressive in its enforcement responsibilities,” César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a law professor at Ohio State University, previously told the Guardian.
