Volunteers say they are protecting undocumented immigrants by exposing ICE agents
The Trump administration announced ICE raids are coming to several cities across the country on Sunday. In response, a group is deploying people of their own to track those federal agents.
Some of the volunteers were out in the Triangle Saturday.
Rachel Wexler is on the lookout.
"Did a sweep of the parking lots," Wexler said in a video she recorded earlier.
She is looking for agents who might be searching for undocumented immigrants.
"Seems like we are ICE free at the moment," Wexler said in the same video.
On her patrols in Durham County, she approached a deputy in an undercover vehicle.
"I am here with a neighborhood watch group about a suspicious vehicle," Wexler said in the video. "I was patrolling an intersection. Looking for suspicious vehicles that could be an ICE agent."
Wexler volunteers with a group called SiembraNC. Organizers said a Facebook video shows an encounter between a patrol volunteer and a ICE agent earlier this year in Burlington. Volunteers approached the agent then sounded the alarm.
"The man has a police vest and says he works for Homeland Security so be careful," someone says in the Facebook video.
Anna Carson-Dewitt is also a volunteer with the group and said she has a passion for what she does.
"People are feeling really afraid and, honestly, terrorized by all of this," Carson-Dewitt said.
They say there are deportations all the time across the state. But, tensions are particularly high after plans for more raids were announced.
"We all know people who have been in these detention centers who have been denied basic medications," Carson-Dewitt said.
We asked her is she was essentially helping people to evade the federal government. She believed the ICE detentions bypass due process.
"They are being detained on warrants that are not signed by a federal judge, which means the case for their detention has not been reviewed by a quote-unquote neutral party," Carson-Dewitt said.
According to the New York Times, no city in our state is the target of planned raids tomorrow. They report cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago are included – the closest to us on the list, Atlanta.
SiembraNC organizers say hundreds have shown interest in volunteering across the state. Previous planned raids by ICE were called off citing safety concerns when details of their operations were released.
