On November 15th, an immigration enforcement operation began in Charlotte, North Carolina. Nicknamed “Operation Charlotte’s Web", it was one of the many recent operations around the U.S., but the first to occur in the southeast, with up to 200 Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents deployed to the city, under the pretext of protecting the city from “violent criminal illegal aliens”. According to an article released by the Department of Homeland Security, Charlotte is a “Sanctuary City”, where the local government has limited the cooperation between its local law enforcement and Federal immigration agents.

In 2006, Mecklenburg county, where Charlotte is located, initiated a 287(g) agreement, which allows local officers to be deputized in order to carry out certain immigration enforcement duties. This agreement was discontinued in 2018, and this combined with the fact of Charlotte’s primarily democratic voter base is likely the reason why it was chosen for the sweep.

The effects of the operation were shown almost immediately; businesses that employed undocumented workers were forced to temporarily close down, as workers called out of work for fear of being detained. Schools reported that during the week of the operation, attendance was down 20%. The bourgeois media decried the pressure that the enforcement put on the city’s petty bourgeois, priests and ministers called for Charlotte residents to “choose love over hate”, and Latino youths took to the street to vent their frustrations with marches and chants. On November 20th, Sheriff Gary McFadden announced that the operations were over, but that ICE “will continue to operate in Mecklenburg County as they always have". Activists also reported that a convoy of federal vehicles was spotted earlier heading south towards Atlanta.

According to Homeland Security, 370 undocumented people had been arrested during the 5 days of the operation. An article posted on their website displays photos of “The worst of the worst”. Some of the horrifying crimes committed by these individuals against the American people include “petty theft” and “failure to appear in court”. As convincing as this facade might be, it was not for the sake of “law and order” that CBP were deployed to the city, nor was it for the purpose of protecting American jobs. One might wonder how the detainment of 370 undocumented workers could affect the labor market in a city with an undocumented population nearing 100,000.

The true purpose of the operation is revealed in the testimony of a worker interviewed after it was over: "They’re waiting for us to go outside, so they can hunt us like a cat hunts a mouse”. Undocumented workers are scared, afraid to leave their houses for fear of being snatched up and thrown into a detention center, but when economic necessity forces them to return to work, they will be all the more willing to take what they can get: Low pay, long hours, and whatever other abuses the whims of the bosses subject them to. Any instinct to fight back, to stand up to the bosses has likely been terrified out of them.

The short duration of Operation Charlotte’s Web compared to similar deployments in other parts of the country might lead one to believe the resistance offered up by the city’s leftist coalitions were successful. Maybe the agents felt guilty after hearing a sermon about how Jesus was an immigrant, or maybe lacking the mayor’s support, they just didn’t have the confidence to continue on with their kidnappings.The truth is that they left because their mission was completed, and they were simply moving on to terrorize the residents of other cities.

We are eagerly awaiting and, in fact, are working towards the formation of the Class Union that, under the leadership of the International Communist Party, will finally be able to offer genuine resistance to these attacks on immigrant workers, and attacks on workers’ standard of living in general.