Crossing Borders: Immigration and Division in North Carolina

I Donald John Trump do solemnly swear

I Donald John Trump do solemnly swear

First I will declare a national emergency at our southern

border

Securing the border without actually fixing our broken immigration system

is dealing with the symptom and not the disease

Entering this country illegally is a crime and we're not

going to forgive it

We hear that from the Trump administration every single day

and it is not true

Being here as an undocumented person is not

I was

straight to the camera is not a crime

Immigration is one of the most talked about issues of

2025 across the country

This morning an escalating crackdown nationwide

Bain was stolen from us by a savage illegal alien

gang member who was arrested while trespassing across Biden's open

southern border

And in North Carolina when you come over here to

study suddenly you wake up one morning and your visa

is ripped away for no reason

That's what happened to two NC State students late last

week

NC Department of Commerce estimates that 1 in 4 construction

workers in our state is undocumented and I resent the

fact that

The Trump administration talks about they're bringing their rapists they're

bringing their criminals is that who put your roof on

a team of rapists on top of your roof or

who picked your vegetables I don't think so

It's clear that the voters of this state and uh

and really across the country are ready to stop the

the lawless illegal immigration in this country

Immigrants are what makes North Carolina great

There are more than 1 million immigrants in North Carolina

9.3% of the state's population and an estimated 325,000 are

undocumented

The WREL documentary team set out to understand how federal

and state immigration policies are impacting the people of North

Carolina and I need them to understand that the pain

when the family is separated is strong

And that we have to stop somehow

Drug dealers or cartel members or gang members I don't

want them in Ames County

We're not criminal we're human beings we're like everybody we're

just not we're not criminals we're trying just to make

you know a better living the US good you know

US citizen

They already had a criminal past

Already been deported twice now they're back again now they

kill a law enforcement officer in the line of duty

How many senseless acts like this you definitely want to

know who's coming into your country

How this moment in time could impact the state forever

This is Crossing borders immigration and division in North Carolina

How many kids do you have How many grandkids How

many great grandkids I had 23 grandchilds and 5 grand

grandchilds and 5 children

Yolanda Zavala lives near almost all of her family members

She and her three daughters each have their own trailer

on the same street in rural Wade County

We're living here because it's a way to live together

So that my grandchildren know what family unity is and

to teach them what a typical Mexican family is where

we're together almost daily

How important is family to you It's everything for me

My family is everything

The most important thing I have

I remember in Mexico that it was for them that

I decided to come

Yolanda came to the US from Mexico illegally nearly 30

years ago

She brought her children with her including her son who

was just 5 at the time and my dream was

that they would study

That they would have a better life

There were days when we would go to bed without

eating

And I felt that it was not a dignified life

for my children

She built a life for all of them

She became a green card holder

She got a job finishing cabinets

Well she's my most productive employee and has been

Really since she got here and it's mainly because of

her work ethic and her discipline and her skills

While Yolanda was a legal permanent resident of the US

her son was still undocumented

When he was 18 he went out with friends

And tell me what happened that day

He went with his friends to play soccer and he

he never came back

He was arrested for driving without a license

Supposedly the tires were not were a little worn down

and that was like a danger to the community

I don't know how the judge saw it but that's

what they put that it was a danger to the

community

And I think one of the things was that he

also did not have a driver's license

I think that was the bigger crime

He was detained on a Sunday and I think that

on Monday the program 287G started that the immigrants who

were detained would be deported

287G is a federal program that allows state and local

law enforcement to partner with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials

and in some cases enforce immigration laws

Yolanda hired a lawyer and tried to visit him in

the detention center

I went with the hope that they would let me

see him but they didn't let me see him

They moved him to uh I think Alamance then Atlanta

and he was deported

Are you OK Why do you get emotional thinking about

it For me it's been difficult because my son was

18 years old

I think that I felt guilty for having brought him

to this country

I wanted to give them a good life

But I didn't think that my son would end up

in jail

After he was deported he stayed at the border

He didn't know anyone there

He came here when he was small

He came when he was like 5 years old

He didn't want to go with anyone

He said I don't know anyone Mom who do you

want me to go with Uh he was living on

the bridges for a while until he decided he wanted

to come back and he came back on his own

through the desert

Uh he didn't make it because he was caught again

He spent like another half year in jail

And he said I love you a lot mom but

I don't want to be in jail anymore

I'm going to stay in Mexico for a while

He was deported in 2008 but the pain has never

left

What was the toughest part you said Mother's Day

Tell me about Mother's Day

Those were not good days

It seemed like we always felt his absence

That chair was always empty

Yolanda's son was one of 23,000 people deported in Wake

and Mecklenburg counties from 2006 to 2018 when

Both counties ended their 287 agreements

However in late 2024 HB 10 passed which requires all

law enforcement agencies in North Carolina to cooperate with ICE

New state immigration laws and mass deportations by the Trump

administration has her family and community on edge

It's

It's difficult to live with fear

Every day we live with the fear that one of

us won't come back uh to the family

I don't don't understand

why they want to separate us

Why not give us the opportunity to be able to

um have a dignified life

I came to the United States a long time ago

I just live in a trailer

I don't have wealth but I have had work and

I have had food every day

I just asked them to touch their heart and to

not see us as numbers

Sometimes they treat us like criminals and we're not criminals

Ned is a rare person that truly lived a selfless

existence focused on others

You could reach out to Ned any time of day

for any reason he'd be there for you

You needed to move that was there all day

Had a flat tire at 3 o'clock in the morning

and I would be the first person to show up

to fix it for you

He was someone who would ask I would ask to

be a groomsman in my wedding

He was the man who would show up for 1

year old birthday parties

He'd come by in his cruiser bring stuffed animals to

my kids deputize them with a sticker

48-year-old Ned Bird was a Wake County sheriff's deputy for

13 years

Friends say he loved his canine partner Sasha jiujitsu and

singing Journey

Don't stop believing my journey because uh

He every time that song came on and I'm sure

anybody's been a car or working out with him he

built that song off tune terribly

I always told my wife if anything ever happens to

me and I'm not available called Ned

I knew Ned would do whatever it took to help

her out

It was a common occurrence for Ned to walk a

lady to her car if they were leaving a restaurant

or his favorite place logos

My name is Larry Carter

I'm the owner of Lola's here and uh I was

uh very very good friends with uh Ned Bird

Uh Deputy Ned Burke willing to help anybody at any

hour you know of the of the day or or

night

I remember one time I actually locked my keys in

my car twice in one night

And he helped uh come and unlock them both times

So are you getting emotional thinking about it a little

bit yeah

Yeah the senselessness of it you know the the craziness

of it like who would ever think something like this

would happen

Breaking news right now at 6 a.m. we learned in

just the past hour that a Wake County deputy has

been killed after an early morning shooting

It happened here apparently just after 11 o'clock overnight going

into the early morning hours

Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker confirmed to us that the

deputy who died in the line of duty last night

is Deputy Ned Bird

13 year veteran of the sheriff's office

He was also a K-9 officer

Deputy Byrd was in this area outside of his car

checking on perhaps a suspicious vehicle he was not able

to radio for help after those shots were fired

The community was on high alert as law enforcement searched

for whoever did this

The massive manhunt for the person who killed Wake County

Deputy Ned Bird is in his 23rd hour

Wake County Sheriff's office released 4 new photos of a

white truck believed to be involved

Two men are in federal custody right now for questioning

in the investigation of the murder of Wake County Sheriff's

deputy Ned Bird

Brothers Alder and Arturo Maine Sotelo were arrested for the

murder of Ned Bird

These new documents say Deputy Byrd was on his way

to canine training when he noticed a suspicious vehicle

He went out to investigate and then seconds later 6

gunshots rang out

Deputies found Byrd dead hours later with multiple gunshot wounds

including one to the back of his head

According to warrants Arturo Marines

said the brothers went to hunt deer off Battle Bridge

Road while he was hunting in a field

He said he saw a police vehicle pull up near

the truck while his brother Alder was still inside

Arturo Marin Sotello said he then heard gunshots and saw

the truck drive away

What was going on that night so bad

That you had to ambush and kill uh a a

police officer a Wake County deputy like what were you

doing That was so bad like right when he walks

up to the car they ambush

The brothers are undocumented immigrants from Mexico

From my understanding they already had a criminal past already

been deported twice

Now they're back again

Now they kill a law enforcement officer in the line

of duty

You definitely want to know who's coming into your country

a country one of the brothers fled after he was

The FBI has joined the search for all their Marino

Tello still on the run after escaping from the Piedmont

Regional Jail in Farmville Virginia

He was finally captured 2400 miles away from North Carolina

He was caught in southern Mexico around 1 o'clock this

afternoon

How do you let somebody That murders a law enforcement

officer escape

How are they in a situation or position or taken

somewhere to some facility where they have the ability to

escape after they've killed a law enforcement officer in the

line of duty and now they run back to Mexico

Alder Marine Sotelo was in Mexico in prison until he

was extradited back to the US in February of 2025

where he'll go on trial

We're absolutely elated and glad that the guy's back and

that he can be held accountable and stand in front

of a court

I have friends that are like no no no everybody

that comes here is you know just looking for a

better way of life and I and I get that

there are and I I love that you know but

you have to realize that there's also very bad actors

right if they get here and they are bad actors

and they are gonna do bad things and this is

the exact evidence of that these are the things that

happen right Ned's picture is up at Lola's his favorite

bar

The stool where he sat has his name on it

There's a flag in another picture of him on the

wall

Here's the picture that was taken during Ned's funeral procession

that was coming down Glenwood Avenue

The entire community came out for his funeral led by

his canine partner Sasha

They even played his favorite song at the service

It takes a uh takes a special man to get

Journey played in church you know what I mean Many

people in this room thought of Ned as their best

friend

You're right he was

His best friend also had a moment to say goodbye

jumping up onto the casket

So Sasha

Um I know you can't understand this girl but If

you can understand anything now how much

He loved you

So Ned our friend her brother

Colleague And our hero

You knew that you would willingly give everything for any

of us without second thought or hesitation

We just never thought you'd have to

What do you think this shows in relation to immigration

It shows we have a major problem

I think that we are just seeing massive cruelty and

we're seeing that in a mainstream way

I will stop the invasion of criminals from the campaign

trail to his first day in office President Trump promised

big changes to immigration enforcement in 2025

Tom Holman was named B czar

Illegal crossings down 95%

ICE has arrested over 21,000 people in the nation

We had about 1800 a day in 2023

We had yesterday 48

Leave now

If you don't we will find you and we will

deport you

Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Christy Noham put

out commercials telling people to self-deport

She visited a prison in El Salvador where hundreds of

Venezuelan migrants have been sent after getting deported from the

US

The Trump administration claims they are part of the Trende

Aragua gang

If you come to our country illegally this is one

of the consequences

Advocates like Nikki Marin Baena of Simra and C knew

things would be different

How would you describe this moment in time right now

I think that we are just seeing massive cruelty and

we're seeing that in a mainstream way

And so for example the White House put up a

post for Valentine's Day that was

Kind of roses are red violets are blue

I can't remember the whole thing but it was like

a joke about deporting illegal people

I can't remember ever in the past seeing so many

kind of memes and jokes about deporting illegals in a

in a mainstream way

Now we're getting a question

Well you said you're going to concentrate on public safety

threats and national security threats but you're arrested no criminals

Yeah damn right we did

Because you're in the country legally which happens to be

a violation of our law entering this country illegally is

a crime and we're not going to forgive it

According to the American Immigration Council physical presence in the

United States without proper authorization is a civil violation rather

than a criminal offense

It becomes a criminal offense if someone has previously been

ordered deported and re-entered in violation

Of the deportation order and I think what a lot

of people don't understand is that for this administration being

an immigrant they're trying to make that being a criminal

even if that's not actually true uh being here in

the US as an undocumented person is a violation of

administrative law not criminal law and so what a lot

of people think is well it's OK like I don't

have papers but

I've never done anything wrong and a lot of people

put a lot of pressure on themselves and their families

so look if we're just here and we just go

to work we just go to school we do everything

right we'll be OK

But unfortunately that's not true

Already in the detentions that we've seen so far in

this administration many of them have been of people who

had no criminal records at all

There has been controversy after ICE deported

Maryland man to El Salvador

A federal judge ordered the US government to return a

man that was sent to El Salvador because of what

the Trump administration called an administrative error

The Trump administration has alleged Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an

MS-13 gang member something his family and attorneys deny

theory

If what you're saying is we're going to deport all

of the criminals we're going to deport all of these

people who are doing bad stuff in our communities you're

talking about Lake and Riley who's gonna say that they

don't want that I what I know because I've been

doing this work for a long time is that they're

not gonna stick to just the violent criminals

Uh that's not how you get the kinds of numbers

that you wanna be able to boast about

She says it's happening to North Carolina families too

What I ask is for compassion

We are human beings

We are not criminals

We are not bad people

35 year old Cynthia Bautista shared her story at a

news conference organized by Simbra NC in Raleigh

We come from Mexico we've been here 2 years

Cynthia is one of an estimated 20,000 DACA recipients in

North Carolina

DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

It allows

Some undocumented immigrants brought here as children to live and

work in the US legally but grants no path to

permanent citizenship

Cynthia said her husband went from their home in North

Carolina to Sarasota Florida for a construction job after Hurricane

Milton on February 7th

Governor De Santi deputized Florida Highway Patrol troopers to carry

out the functions of ICE agents

On February 11th these North Carolinians construction workers were stopped

under false pretenses

He was heading back home with his crew and that's

when they got pulled over by a state trooper stating

that they uh should have passed through the weight scale

Which they were in a regular worker van

Does he have a criminal background He doesn't have no

criminal background

That's the reason he went to work over there because

um what we heard is they only getting criminals not

regular working people

She said he's been in a detention center in Florida

since February 12th with 60 people in a space meant

for 20

Under really bad circumstances sleeping on the floor not having

privacy having the toilet in there so they can do

the necessities in front of everybody he said he's scared

He doesn't know what's going to happen

They have 4 kids

Cynthia is worried about having to provide for all of

them while she waits for answers

They're not just grabbing criminals

They're not going after criminals

They're going after regular you know parents that are going

to work every day and trying to come back to

their family trying to provide for their family

Cynthia other families and advocates were at the North Carolina

legislature fighting against the passing of the North Carolina

Protection Act filed by Senate President Republican Phil Berger

It would require state agencies like the Highway Patrol and

Department of Public Safety to enter into agreements with ICE

to enforce immigration laws

Democratic Representative Deb Butler is part of a caucus trying

to fight this bill and similar legislation

I guess we're going to weaponize our highway patrol to

patrol interstates and profile people I guess and check their

Papers when we've come to the place where you're gonna

have to check check your papers

Does that sound familiar Sounds like Nazi Germany to me

That's what that sounds like

But North Carolina House Speaker Dustin Hall said this legislation

is what the people of North Carolina want and if

you're an illegal alien committing crimes in our state you've

got to go

This is a common sense policy that the people of

our state overwhelmingly agree with

Hall introduced House Bill 10 which passed in December requiring

all sheriffs in the state to work with ICE and

hold any suspect with a detainer in their jail for

an extra 48 hours so ICE can take them into

custody

The bill does not specify

The sheriff must notify ICE before releasing migrants

Hall said not all sheriffs were complying including Mecklenburg Sheriff

Gary McFadden who has said on record he's not notifying

ICE before releasing immigrants

They may be holding the folks there in the jail

for 48 hours but still not telling ICE when someone's

going to be released

And it's basically they're playing games and they're playing games

with public safety of the people of the state

Hall then introduced House Bill 318 which would require sheriffs

to notify an ICE agent two hours before a suspect

with a detainer is released

So just this week we introduced new legislation

If local sheriffs avoid cooperating with federal ICE officials the

citizens of this state will hold you accountable

I believe that we need to ICE

Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson has had a long history

of working with ICE

Aemance was one of the first counties to enter into

a 287G program with the agency in 2007

Remember Yolanda's son was deported under that program

In 2013 the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against

Alamance County alleging unconstitutional racial profiling

The government later dropped the lawsuit but ICE still ended

the partnership

Let me say this a whole lot of things were

blown totally out of proportion

On the sheriff's office and immigration I had to eat

it and move on and do what I felt was

right and what my oath of office held me to

In 2019 Alamance County started working with ICE again

That partnership continues today

We're holding facility probably for the biggest part of North

Carolina right now

The facility can hold up to 40 ICE detainees

Paid for by the federal government bringing in more than

$2 million a year

If we could hold 100 I think that'll be the

case

Sheriff Johnson says it's not just a talking point

Some undocumented people are committing crimes

I can tell you we have a few uh homicides

here and a ton of drug cases here that I'll

be glad to show you that what we're dealing with

here in Alaman County

And it's cartel so this is all cartel and he

did showing us pictures of millions of dollars from cartel

drug seizures

20 kg of cocaine from Tucson Arizona destined for Aance

County

He showed us pictures too graphic to show of murder

and kidnapping victims from the early and mid 2000s

The cartel members that was arrested in some of this

stuff

Murder

This is what bothered me

It's a 2002 murder

This man was killed at uh uh Motel 6 in

uh Burlington

I was not expecting

I mean these are these are bodies

Yes ma'am they're bodies bodies as a result of the

drug traffic from uh immigrants crossing the border cartel members

etc

Believe it or not uh I have a lot of

support from the immigrant community because they a lot of

them know what my heart is those individuals will tell

you

Unless somebody violates the law

We don't mess with them

For the White House and for the architects of this

kind of messaging there's not a difference between a criminal

immigrant who is a drug trafficker or a rapist and

your friend who happens to be undocumented or your cousin

or that guy who always changes your tires you see

a difference the administration does not see a difference and

it is important to them that all of that starts

to get blended together

It's the icing

It's difficult to live with fear

Every day we live with the fear that one of

us won't come back uh to the family

This is what happens when you don't fix the problem

What what's your biggest fear What's your biggest fear moving

forward To be separated again to have my children uh

my grandchildren crying again for their dads

I think it would be more painful

One of the most painful things is to see them

because they're children and sometimes they don't understand

They don't understand the systems

They don't understand uh why suddenly we stopped seeing a

family member

And I think that's one of our fears when we

go out even to go to work

We go out with fear and sometimes I see them

through the window

And when they leave I tell them God bless you

You know Larry we and we've interviewed a lot of

different people for this and you know some people say

oh this um notion of undocumented people or illegal people

coming in and committing these crimes it's not happening it's

it's very rare what would you say to that Well

to someone like that uh you know I would say

they haven't lived through something like this you know um

and hopefully they don't hopefully they never do

But um

You know if they don't recognize things like this um

I don't know what you know really make people wake

up you know if if things like this you know

never happen or you know uh don't make sense to

the common sense person then you know that the whole

immigration fight is lost