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Agents were active in the Raleigh and Durham areas on Tuesday, though the scope of the immigration crackdown in the state’s Research Triangle region was not immediately clear.
By Eduardo MedinaEmily Cataneo and Meredith Honig
Eduardo Medina reported from Charlotte, N.C., and Emily Cataneo and Meredith Honig reported from the Research Triangle area.
Nov. 18, 2025Updated 4:55 p.m. ET
Federal Border Patrol agents expanded their operations in North Carolina on Tuesday to include Raleigh, the state capital, and nearby Democratic cities in the latest escalation of President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Since Saturday, the Border Patrol had been focusing its efforts in North Carolina on Charlotte, the state’s largest city, which is home to a growing population of immigrants, especially from Latin America. The expansion to the state’s heavily Democratic Research Triangle region, which includes Durham and Chapel Hill as well as Raleigh, puts a purple state firmly at the center of one of the Trump administration’s most visible immigration strategies.
The full scope of the operation was not immediately clear. Border Patrol agents were seen detaining people on Tuesday at a Home Depot in Cary, N.C., just west of Raleigh, at an apartment complex and outside a beauty shop in Durham. Volunteers for immigrant advocacy groups were beginning to station themselves at other home improvement stores in the area; one person brought whistles for the volunteers to use if they saw any Border Patrol activity.
Federal officials say that more than 200 people have been arrested in Charlotte since Saturday, and the action there has drawn criticism akin to what opponents said about similar operations in Los Angeles and Chicago this year: that Hispanic people were being profiled, and that the agents’ aggressive tactics had provoked communities, disrupted businesses and incited fear.
The leader of those operations, Gregory Bovino, has posted comments online about some of the people arrested in Charlotte, saying that they had criminal histories and declaring their arrests successes in the Border Patrol’s mission to deport people who are deemed dangerous. The Department of Homeland Security said 44 of the people arrested in Charlotte as of early Monday had criminal histories.
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