A surge of immigration enforcement has begun in North Carolina’s largest city, as agents make arrests

Members of the Texas National Guard arrive on October 7, at the Army Reserve Training Centre in Elwood, Illinois. A defence official says 200 members from Texas will now depart from Chicago. Photo / Getty Images

The United States Department of Homeland Security has begun law enforcement operations in Charlotte, federal officials said

It’s the latest Democratic-run city to brace for the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown, while the Administration pulls back troops in two other cities after legal challenges.

As President Donald Trump’s deployment of federalised National Guard members to protect federal agents and facilities continues to face setbacks in court, all 200 members of California’s Guard will leave Portland and 200 members from Texas will depart from Chicago, a defence official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

In Charlotte, the Administration is relying on law enforcement from agencies under the control of Homeland Security rather than troops.

“We are surging DHS law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed,” Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, said in an email.

“There have been too many victims of criminal illegal aliens, and President Trump and [DHS Secretary Kristi] Noem will step up to protect Americans when sanctuary politicians won’t.”

Garry McFadden, sheriff of Mecklenburg County, where Charlotte is located, said last week that federal officials had confirmed a plan for US Customs and Border Protection to begin operations yesterday.

McFadden said his office had not been asked by federal authorities to assist.

Charlotte, led by Mayor Vi Lyles (Democrat), was thrust into the national spotlight in August when a young woman on a public train was fatally stabbed, allegedly by a 34-year-old homeless man with a history of severe mental illness.

US President Donald Trump and other Republican officials used the attack to argue that Democrats needed to tighten the grip on their cities, saying that the suspect would have been in prison if not for the city’s left-leaning policies.

Lyles, who was re-elected this month, said yesterday in a statement that recent DHS operations involving Border Patrol agents were causing “unnecessary fear and uncertainty” in the community and also encouraged the city to remain peaceful.

“Let us all - no matter our political allegiance - stand together for all hard working and law-abiding families,” she and other city and county leaders wrote in the statement.

Willy Aceituno, a 46-year-old US citizen born in Honduras, told the Associated Press that he was stopped twice by Border Patrol agents. The second time, he said, the agents broke his car windows, forced him out of his car and threw him to the ground.

“They wanted to know where I was born, or they didn’t believe I was an American citizen,” he told the AP.

Aceituno said he was forcibly taken into a Border Patrol car but was released after showing documents that proved his citizenship. Earlier, he had seen Border Patrol agents chase people on his way to work.

North Carolina’s Democratic Governor, Josh Stein, said on Saturday that the vast majority of people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents across the country have no criminal convictions, and urged North Carolinians to remain peaceful and stand with their neighbours.

“If you see any inappropriate behaviour, use your phones to record and notify local law enforcement, who will continue to keep our communities safe long after these federal agents leave,” he said in a statement. “That’s the North Carolina way.”

As the Trump Administration continues its nationwide mass deportation campaign, Ice agents have been accused of abusive behaviour in the cities in which they’ve been deployed.

A federal judge said last week that immigration officers have unnecessarily terrorised local residents and added that the Justice Department’s defence for their actions was “simply not credible”.

A father alleged last week that he, his 1-year-old daughter and other family members were pepper-sprayed by Ice agents while they were grocery shopping in a Chicago suburb this month, an allegation that Ice has denied.

In Charlotte, the Trump Administration is relying on law enforcement from agencies under the control of Homeland Security rather than troops. Photo / Getty Images

Separately, a defence official said that many National Guard members sent to Chicago and Portland will demobilise and return to their home stations in the coming days, leaving a fraction of their presence in place.

Various rulings from judges have prevented the Administration from deploying the Guard in those cities, effectively leaving personnel to sit around as the holidays loom.

The Pentagon has felt some pressure to send them home but leave some in place if the courts decide they can serve the missions, the official said.

The Justice Department has asked the US Supreme Court to allow the President to send troops to Chicago, and the high court could rule at any time on that request.

In Portland, all 200 California National Guard troops will head home. The Oregon National Guard, with 200 troops under federal orders, will demobilise half of them.

The 200 Texas National Guard soldiers in Chicago will also depart but will be placed on standby status, the official said. The 300 Illinois National Guard troops mobilised for the mission will remain.

ABC News had earlier reported on the pullback of Guard members.

This northern summer, the Trump Administration began pulling back troops sent to Los Angeles in early June. The 100 California National Guard troops left there will stay on, the official said.

- Mark Berman contributed to this report.

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