CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Surrounded by flags and protest signs in the back of his work van, Jesse Pacheco shared the story of his friend getting arrested by federal immigration agents.

“Border Patrol just pulls up out of nowhere, discriminating us by our color… They just pulled up and took my guy,” said Pacheco, who owns the local company JPA Renovations. “They asked me for my documentation and if I was born here. I said yes, but pretty angrily.”

It happened on Nov. 15, he said, when he and his friend had just picked up wood they needed from the Matthews Lowe’s. They were about to fix a shed for someone.

The only questions Pacheco remembered the agents asking: Was he born in the United States, and did he have documentation? A son of Mexican immigrants, he was born and raised in the Charlotte area, he said. They left him alone.

But when his friend said that he was not born in the U.S., the conversation ended, Pacheco said. He believed his friend had overstayed a visa. But agents never even got that far in the conversation, Pacheco said. As soon as he said he was not born in the United States, they took him.

“That’s what made me do what I was doing these couple of days, which was protesting,” he said.

Man knows several arrested

Federal agents were especially active in Charlotte from Nov. 15 to Nov. 19 during an operation they dubbed “Charlotte’s Web.”

More than 370 people were arrested, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The government has released just a fraction of their names, though.

Border Patrol agents smashed a citizen’s truck window and took his keys, got into high-speed chases and ran with guns into a supermarket, among other controversies. For days, Charlotteans traveled with their passports to prove they were citizens. Immigrants — documented and undocumented alike — hid. Some are still hiding.

Federal police wore masks and operated in unmarked SUVs. The operation caused a hit to the local economy; many restaurants and businesses in east Charlotte temporarily closed.

While local officials say that Border Patrol is gone, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is still in the city, and community leaders say it will take a long time for some neighborhoods to recover.

(The Charlotte Observer has requested an interview with regional ICE supervisor Maria Somers, who previously said she wanted to improve the agency’s relationship with the community.)

Pacheco said he knows of others who were arrested, including someone who was struggling to get dialysis treatment while in custody. All Pacheco knew about that person’s status last week, he said, was that the man was being held somewhere in Georgia. He knew little about the status of others, either.

When possible, Pacheco has spoken up. He showed a CNN reporter around east Charlotte, protested, joined a vigil and brought food to neighbors, he said.

“If I’m doing it, anybody else can do it and help our community as well,” he said.

A fire followed by Border Patrol

His sister, Cynthia Pacheco, is doing something, too — though she said there’s been little time to protest.

This month, a fire tore through one of the buildings at the apartment complex where she works, leaving some residents without homes. Then, on Nov. 23, one of the residents who lost his home got arrested by ICE, she said.

“He was also one of the (people) who, by his kind heart, was helping other people move their things out,” she said.

She said another resident “lost everything” in the fire, had no renters insurance, saw her husband arrested by federal agents about two weeks before and had to live in hiding while dealing with it all.

Federal agents have frequented the apartment complex, she said, and videos she shared with the Observer showed them there. She said she has noticed a pattern where agents circle the lot quickly, looking for someone, and then leave before she can remind them that they are on private property.

Agents’ visits have left many at the complex afraid, stowed away in their apartments, she said. So, she has taken out their trash, brought them food and helped in other ways.

“I’m grateful to work here, and I feel like God put me in this office for a reason,” she said.

Worried for her son

The fire and the arrests happened just before Thanksgiving. If not for how busy she has been, she would normally be deep into Christmas.

She said she’s not feeling especially festive, anyway.

“We’ve been through discrimination before… We’ve been through racism. Now we’re back at it again in 2025. You would expect for the generation to be completely different,” she said.

While she has tried to help the residents, Border Patrol’s time in Charlotte has affected her own family.

“I’m even scared for my son,” she said. “My son has papers, and I don’t want him getting racially profiled or targeted just because of his color.”

He is eight years old, in second grade and has questions about what’s happened in Charlotte recently, she said. It has made him worried for others, so she has found a new routine.

“OK, let’s pray for our people,” she said she tells him at the school drop-off line.

----------

©2025 The Charlotte Observer. Visit at charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.