Immigration arrests in Charlotte have sparked fears, leading businesses to close

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jonathan Ocampo has called this Southern city home for six years, but, after immigration enforcement descended here over the weekend, the American citizen of Colombian descent said he doesn’t leave the house without his U.S. passport.

“I’m carrying it here right now, which is sad,” he told NBC News. Ocampo said he worries that his father, a citizen who has been in the country for 40 years, could be targeted because of being Hispanic-looking and speaking what he described as very broken English.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 130 people have been arrested since Border Patrol began an immigration enforcement push it calls “Operation Charlotte’s Web” on Saturday, putting many residents and business owners of the state’s largest city on edge.

The city of Raleigh, northeast of Charlotte, was bracing for more arrests on Tuesday after city Mayor Janet Cowell confirmed in a Monday phone call that immigration officers from Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement already were on the ground. She said in the call that they could start activities as soon as Tuesday. Local law enforcement did not plan to assist, she said.

In a statement issued late Monday, she said, "We are committed to protecting our residents and to following the law."

A popular Latino bakery was closed Monday over fears of Border Patrol activity. Several small businesses in a shopping center also shut their doors Monday after immigration authorities were seen smashing the car window of a Honduran-born U.S. citizen, Willy Aceituno, over the weekend.

Aceituno told NBC affiliate WCNC he was getting breakfast when he noticed immigration authorities chasing two people. Three vehicles then surrounded his car, and agents began asking about his immigration status. “I was scared,” he said. Aceituno, who recorded the incident, is seen on video staying inside his car and telling agents that if they broke the window they’d have to pay for it. An agent ultimately shattered the window, opened Aceituno’s car door and pulled him to the ground.

DHS accused Aceituno on social media of “trying to distract officers so others could evade the law.”