Orange County Hispanic community on edge after multiple ICE arrests made over two day period

According to Mayor Lydia Lavelle, multiple people have been detained in the county in the past two days. ICE representatives say the raids are routine operations and the organization prioritizes detaining those who pose a security threat to their communities.

According to Lavelle, who posted on the Town of Carrboro’s Facebook page Thursday morning, at least two town residents have been detained in the last two days and at least four others have been detained in the county.

Members of El Centro Hispano, a Latino advocacy group, say 10 people have been detained from apartment complexes in Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The organization said all those detained were men and the youngest person taken into custody was 18.

In the case of the 18-year-old, a family advocate said the high school student was simply helping ICE translate so another family member could understand. When it was discovered that he was undocumented, he was arrested too, the advocate said.

The sister of that 18-year-old said three of her brothers were arrested at the same time in Chapel Hill. She said ICE officials who came to their home were looking for someone else.

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An ICE spokesman said that the organization does not randomly arrest people, but instead conducts targeted enforcement.

“ICE makes arrests every day in accordance with its routine, ongoing targeted enforcement. ICE only conducts targeted immigration enforcement in compliance with federal law and agency policy. ICE does not conduct checkpoint sweeps or raids that target aliens indiscriminately,” spokesman Bryan Cox said in an email to WRAL News.

Cox said priority cases include convicted criminals, gang members and what he called egregious immigration law violators, such as people who have been deported in the past.

Cox said that while all raids are targeted, if officers find another undocumented immigrant, they cannot "turn a blind eye."

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Lavelle said town officials are working with a local nonprofit and community partners to provide support to the family members of those who were detained. Roughly 1 out of 5 Carrboro residents were born outside the United States, according to Lavelle.

“My heart hurts for our community. I look forward to a future when we live in a nation where all people are treated with compassion and respect, regardless of their immigration,” wrote Lavelle, who also said immigrants are an integral part of the community.

An El Centro spokesman said many of the men detailed leave behind wives and children. They're working with the families to provide mental health services and legal services.

"These are all working men. Most of them were taken either at work, when they got back from work or on the way back to work," said Eliazar Posada with El Centro Hispano. "The youngest one we've been able to identify is 18 years old. The oldest is in his 30s."

An ICE spokesman could not confirm the number of arrests in Orange County, but said that fewer than 15 people have been arrested across the Triangle since Sunday.

Chapel Hill councilmen issued a statement Thursday afternoon saying they aer "deeply disturbed by the heightened fear and disruption to families that these raised have caused."

Posada said many families are now living in fear.

"Aside from the fear we're seeing, just the very real economic threat that comes along with taking the breadwinner out of the equation," she said.

According to statistics released by ICE, 92 percent of all immigrants arrested by the organization in 2017 had either a criminal conviction, a pending criminal charge or were already subject to a removal order.

Last year, ICE officers with the Atlanta field office, which covers Georgia and the Carolinas, made 13,551 arrests, 9,111 of which involved a convicted criminal.

Officials in Carrboro and Chapel Hill said local police were not involved in the raids.

"The Chapel Hill Police Department's positoin will always reflect our belief that immigration enforcement is best left to the federal agencies," Chief Chris Blue said. "We hope that the most vulnerable among us will see us as the Guardians of the Hill, not as an entity to be feared."