A federal prosecutor acknowledged Thursday that the decision to charge Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia two years after a routine traffic stop was “extraordinary,” while defending the human smuggling case as legally justified.
Abrego Garcia, 31, has become a flashpoint in the national immigration debate since last March, when he was deported to El Salvador in violation of a 2019 court order in what Trump administration officials acknowledged was an “administrative error.”
The Supreme Court later ruled that the administration had to work to bring him back to the U.S.
After returning in June, Abrego Garcia was taken into federal custody in Nashville and detained on human smuggling charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee.
He has pleaded not guilty and is seeking dismissal of the charges on the grounds of vindictive and selective prosecution.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura, left, are accompanied by Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, right, of We Are Casa, as they leave the federal courthouse, Thursday, in Nashville, Tenn.(AP Photo/George Walker IV)
A 2019 court order prevents Abrego Garcia from being deported to El Salvador after an immigration judge determined he faced danger from a gang that had threatened his family. He immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager and has been under the supervision of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Abrego Garcia was accused in court records of repeated domestic violence against his wife, who alleged multiple incidents of physical abuse in protective order filings. She later withdrew the protective order request and has defended her husband publicly.
The Department of Homeland Security has also said he was living in the U.S. illegally and has alleged ties to MS-13, disputing portrayals of him as simply a “Maryland man.” His attorneys have denied the gang allegations.
Tennessee Highway Patrol body camera footage from when Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding shows a calm exchange with officers. While officers discussed suspicions of smuggling among themselves — noting there were nine passengers in the vehicle — Abrego Garcia was issued only a warning.
A woman holds a sign in support of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in front of the U.S. District Court in Nashville.(Getty Images )
First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Rob McGuire, who was acting U.S. attorney in April 2025, testified Thursday that his decision to charge Abrego Garcia was based on the evidence.
“I had previously prosecuted several human smuggling cases,” McGuire said, noting that after seeing video of the traffic stop, “I was immediately struck by how similar what was being depicted in the body cam was to those investigations.”
McGuire said Abrego Garcia’s vehicle belonged to someone with “a human smuggling background” and added that the route was “suspicious.”
“It was a large number of individuals traveling in one SUV with a driver who spoke for the group. No one had luggage… the car had Texas plates… the route was suspicious,” McGuire said.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia arrived at the federal courthouse, Thursday, for a hearing on whether the charges against him should be dismissed.(AP Photo/George Walker IV)
During cross-examination, McGuire acknowledged that the timing of the charges, coming so long after the traffic stop, was “extraordinary.”
He said he had not previously been aware of the traffic stop but reiterated that nobody in the Trump administration, including the White House or the Department of Justice, pressured him to seek the indictment.
When asked about whether he might have felt pressure to prosecute the case, McGuire said, “I’m not going to do something that is wrong to keep my job.”
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, right, and his brother Cesar Abrego Garcia, center, arrive at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore, Aug. 25, 2025.(AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
McGuire also said timing factored into charging Abrego Garcia since he was being held in El Salvador and he did not want the indictment to go public before all senior officials were briefed on the matter.
“I knew from the get-go that this was going to be a controversial matter,” McGuire said.
U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw did not make a ruling Thursday and said he would wait to receive post-hearing briefs from attorneys by March 5 before determining whether another hearing is necessary.
Crenshaw previously found some evidence that the prosecution “may be vindictive” and that prior statements by Trump administration officials “raise cause for concern.”
A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that the Trump administration acted illegally when it ended legal protections that gave hundreds of thousands of people from Venezuela permission to live and work in the United States.A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that found Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem exceeded her authority when she ended temporary protected status for Venezuelans.The decision, however, will not have any immediate practical effect after the U.S. Supreme Court in October allowed Noem’s decision to take effect pending a final decision by the justices.An email late Wednesday night to the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately returned.The 9th Circuit panel also upheld the lower court’s finding that Noem exceeded her authority when she decided to end TPS early for hundreds of thousands of people from Haiti.A federal judge in Washington is expected to rule any day now on a request to pause the termination of TPS for Haiti while a separate lawsuit challenging it proceeds. The country’s TPS designation is scheduled to end on Feb. 3.Ninth Circuit Judges Kim Wardlaw, Salvador Mendoza, Jr. and Anthony Johnstone said in Wednesday’s ruling that the TPS legislation passed by Congress did not give the secretary the power to vacate an existing TPS designation. All three judges were nominated by Democratic presidents.“The statute contains numerous procedural safeguards that ensure individuals with TPS enjoy predictability and stability during periods of extraordinary and temporary conditions in their home country,” Judge Kim Wardlaw, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton, wrote for the panel.Wardlaw said Noem’s “unlawful actions have had real and significant consequences” for Venezuelans and Haitians in the United States who rely on TPS.“The record is replete with examples of hard-working, contributing members of society — who are mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, and partners of U.S. citizens, pay taxes, and have no criminal records — who have been deported or detained after losing their TPS,” she wrote.Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, authorized by Congress as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, allows the Homeland Security secretary to grant legal immigration status to people fleeing countries experiencing civil strife, environmental disaster or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions” that prevent a safe return to that home country.Designations are granted for terms of six, 12 or 18 months, and extensions can be granted so long as conditions remain dire. The status prevents holders from being deported and allows them to work, but it does not give them a path to citizenship.In ending the protections, Noem said that conditions in both Haiti and Venezuela had improved and that it was not in the national interest to allow immigrants from the two countries to stay on for what is a temporary program.Millions of Venezuelans have fled political unrest, mass unemployment and hunger. The country is mired in a prolonged crisis brought on by years of hyperinflation, political corruption, economic mismanagement and an ineffectual government.Haiti was first designated for TPS in 2010 after a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of people, and left more than 1 million homeless. Haitians face widespread hunger and gang violence.Mendoza wrote separately that there was “ample evidence of racial and national origin animus” that reinforced the lower court’s conclusion that Noem’s decisions were “preordained and her reasoning pretextual.”“It is clear that the Secretary’s vacatur actions were not actually grounded in substantive policy considerations or genuine differences with respect to the prior administration’s TPS procedures, but were instead rooted in a stereotype-based diagnosis of immigrants from Venezuela and Haiti as dangerous criminals or mentally unwell,” he wrote.Attorneys for the government have argued the secretary has clear and broad authority to make determinations related to the TPS program and those decisions are not subject to judicial review. They have also denied that her actions were motived by racial animus.
A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that the Trump administration acted illegally when it ended legal protections that gave hundreds of thousands of people from Venezuela permission to live and work in the United States.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that found Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem exceeded her authority when she ended temporary protected status for Venezuelans.
The decision, however, will not have any immediate practical effect after the U.S. Supreme Court in October allowed Noem’s decision to take effect pending a final decision by the justices.
An email late Wednesday night to the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately returned.
The 9th Circuit panel also upheld the lower court’s finding that Noem exceeded her authority when she decided to end TPS early for hundreds of thousands of people from Haiti.
A federal judge in Washington is expected to rule any day now on a request to pause the termination of TPS for Haiti while a separate lawsuit challenging it proceeds. The country’s TPS designation is scheduled to end on Feb. 3.
Ninth Circuit Judges Kim Wardlaw, Salvador Mendoza, Jr. and Anthony Johnstone said in Wednesday’s ruling that the TPS legislation passed by Congress did not give the secretary the power to vacate an existing TPS designation. All three judges were nominated by Democratic presidents.
“The statute contains numerous procedural safeguards that ensure individuals with TPS enjoy predictability and stability during periods of extraordinary and temporary conditions in their home country,” Judge Kim Wardlaw, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton, wrote for the panel.
Wardlaw said Noem’s “unlawful actions have had real and significant consequences” for Venezuelans and Haitians in the United States who rely on TPS.
“The record is replete with examples of hard-working, contributing members of society — who are mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, and partners of U.S. citizens, pay taxes, and have no criminal records — who have been deported or detained after losing their TPS,” she wrote.
Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, authorized by Congress as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, allows the Homeland Security secretary to grant legal immigration status to people fleeing countries experiencing civil strife, environmental disaster or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions” that prevent a safe return to that home country.
Designations are granted for terms of six, 12 or 18 months, and extensions can be granted so long as conditions remain dire. The status prevents holders from being deported and allows them to work, but it does not give them a path to citizenship.
In ending the protections, Noem said that conditions in both Haiti and Venezuela had improved and that it was not in the national interest to allow immigrants from the two countries to stay on for what is a temporary program.
Millions of Venezuelans have fled political unrest, mass unemployment and hunger. The country is mired in a prolonged crisis brought on by years of hyperinflation, political corruption, economic mismanagement and an ineffectual government.
Haiti was first designated for TPS in 2010 after a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of people, and left more than 1 million homeless. Haitians face widespread hunger and gang violence.
Mendoza wrote separately that there was “ample evidence of racial and national origin animus” that reinforced the lower court’s conclusion that Noem’s decisions were “preordained and her reasoning pretextual.”
“It is clear that the Secretary’s vacatur actions were not actually grounded in substantive policy considerations or genuine differences with respect to the prior administration’s TPS procedures, but were instead rooted in a stereotype-based diagnosis of immigrants from Venezuela and Haiti as dangerous criminals or mentally unwell,” he wrote.
Attorneys for the government have argued the secretary has clear and broad authority to make determinations related to the TPS program and those decisions are not subject to judicial review. They have also denied that her actions were motived by racial animus.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings Credit: via Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings/Facebook
As mayors in some parts of the country are demanding greater transparency from federal immigration enforcement following reports of aggressive arrests, Orange County mayor Jerry Demings argued Tuesday that county officials don’t really have the power to address these concerns themselves. That’s despite growing pressure for them to do so.
“The resolution to this issue is not in these chambers, it is somewhere else,” Demings stated bluntly in response to public criticism from local rights advocates. “If there’s a complaint about how these individuals are doing their business, if they’re violating rights, I believe that the appropriate venue for those types of complaints is either with the federal government, with the state or the courts — not the Orange County Commission.”
Demings, a former sheriff and Democratic mayor governing in a Republican-controlled state, was placed on the hot seat during a county board meeting Tuesday by advocates with the Immigrants Are Welcome Here Coalition, made up of 64 local legal aid, social advocacy and labor organizations and 140 faith leaders.
Hope CommUnity Center organizing director Ericka Gomez-Tejeda said immigrant communities in Orange County, including U.S. citizens afraid of being racially profiled by ICE agents, “are living the nightmares that we and every U.S. American citizen dreads.”
“We are seeing people aggressively being taken by masked agents in our communities. Unmarked uniforms, arrests without warrants,” she told the county board of commissioners and the press. “Now we have the [Florida] Fish and Wildlife and, incredibly, even the [Florida] Department of Finance agents in our streets, at our doors, working for ICE,” she added.
Florida, a state with one of the largest populations of undocumented people in the U.S., has been recognized as an “essential” partner in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants living in the country without legal status. Although ICE claims to be going after the “worst of the worst illegal aliens,” Orange County corrections data reveals a sharp influx in the number of people who are being detained solely on federal immigration holds, not any actual criminal charges.
“We are seeing people aggressively being taken by masked agents in our communities.”
Hope CommUnity Center organizing director Ericka Gomez-Tejeda
Deputy county administrator of public safety Danny Banks said, as of Tuesday, the jail was holding 120 people detained by ICE solely on the alleged charge of being in the country illegally.
“As recently as last week, that was down as low as 25,” Banks told county leaders. “In the last six months, we’ve seen it sharply decline and then come back up again. But the point is, yes, 120 is a lot.”
The Orlando Sentinelconfirmed through a jail official that, as of Nov. 30, the Orange County Jail has booked nearly 6,000 people on ICE detainers this year alone.
‘We spent hours looking for my mother’
Johanna Alvarez, a U.S. citizen and daughter of an immigrant, said her own mother was lured out of her home last month and subsequently detained on a federal immigration hold by men who had identified themselves to her as state police.
According to Alvarez, the men told her mom they wanted to talk to her about her car. “My mom, thinking something had happened to me since I had gone to go drop off my daughters at school, went outside with them. And as soon as she passed the gate of our house, they arrested her and took her to the Immigration Detention Center.”
Johanna Alvarez shares the story of her mother being detained (Dec. 16, 2025) Credit: McKenna Schueler
Alvarez said a man who identified himself as a “financial detective” called her shortly afterward to let her know her mom had been detained. “He said he didn’t know where they had taken her, which was a lie, because he was the one who took my mom to the detention center,” she said.
“We spent hours looking for my mother without answers.”
Alvarez’s mother, originally from Mexico, had lived in the U.S. for 26 years, “always fulfilling” what immigration authorities asked of her, according to Alvarez. She was detained by agents on Nov. 19, and was released only on the condition that she return to Mexico. On Dec. 14, her mother returned to Mexico with Alvarez’s 2-year-old sister, leaving behind Alvarez, her 18-year-old sister, and grandchildren.
“This will be our first Christmas without her,” Alvarez told the press Tuesday, as tears streamed down her face. She said she and her sister, both born in the U.S., have started carrying their U.S. passports with them everywhere “in fear,” after an immigration officer allegedly told them “we didn’t look like U.S. citizens.”
Farmworker Association of Florida organizer Aaron Quen, out of Apopka, told the press his community has seen an increase of Florida Fish & Wildlife officers acting as ICE agents, “creating fear, confusion, and distrust.”
Banks, the public safety director, said that county staff are “not privy” to federal law enforcement operations, “so I really wouldn’t know what their plans are, or how they choose where to go, who to arrest, who gets arrested, who doesn’t get arrested, and so forth.”
Mayor Demings backed away from calls for transparency on ICE arrests that came not just from local advocates, but also county commissioners Kelly Semrad and Nicole Wilson, who have been sympathetic to the immigrant coalition’s cause.
“I watched the city of New Orleans struggle with this type of thing, and the mayor there very strongly said, we need transparency. We need to know which agents are pulling people from these homes,” Wilson pressed. “For all we know they’re being smuggled into human trafficking. We don’t know who they are, they don’t show their badges, they don’t show a judicial warrant, and we don’t get any of that information.”
Orange County Commissioner Nicole Wilson speaks at a press conference organized by the Immigrants Are Welcome Here coalition (Dec. 16, 2025) Credit: McKenna Schueler
While Demings acknowledged during the board meeting that questions about due process and transparency are “valid,” he argued that the county “is not involved in that.”
“We do not have authority over the state of Florida or the federal government in that regard,” he said. All the county can do, he said, is reassure the public that those who are detained in the county jail “are treated humanely, with dignity and respect.”
At what cost?
Meanwhile, the federal government has not even committed to fully reimbursing the Orange County government for holding people detained by ICE. While the cost of housing a person in the jail is about $180 per night, the federal government has only agreed to reimburse $88 per person, per night.
Jennifer Hall, an organizer with Orlando 50501, said an estimated $14.3 million has been spent so far this year to house people detained by ICE in the local jail. The calculation is based on the approximate number of people detained on ICE holds in 2025 and the approximate cost for doing so, per person. “Of that, $6.36 million dollars will never be reimbursed,” she said. A jail spokesperson estimates the figure is closer to $1.74 million.
From November 2024 to November 2025, the average daily population of people held solely on ICE detainers in the county jail increased 871 percent, from about 7 people to 70 people, according to corrections data.
Corrections officials for Orange County have said they’re working to renegotiate a higher reimbursement rate with the federal government. However, they say the process was delayed by the 43-day federal government shutdown that began Oct. 1. Banks said they received further communication on the matter as recently as last week and expect “some solution to that” within the next few months.
Demings similarly tried to downplay concerns about how much it’s costing taxpayers to detain people like Alvarez’s mom. “It is my intent that every dollar that we have spent to house the federal inmates, we will seek to get those dollars back,” he said. “That process is playing itself out.”
Urging court action
Advocates with the immigrant coalition have urged the county to take legal action in order to seek court guidance on the extent to which the Orange County government must cooperate with ICE.
“National news show political leaders from all around the country taking all actions possible to protect their residents from legally questionable ICE operations and the militarization of their cities,” said Gomez. “And yet here at home, this county commission is heading into the holiday break without filing for the legal clarity of your obligations to cooperate with ICE.”
Under state law, the county is required to cooperate with and aid ICE, at least to some extent. But not all of their obligations are so clear-cut. Earlier this year, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier bullied Mayor Demings and county commissioners into signing an amendment to the county’s contract with ICE that they had believed was voluntary, not necessary, for them to sign onto.
The amendment authorized local corrections employees to transport ICE detainees to other detention facilities across the state, upon request — a task that county leaders worried would unnecessarily stretch the corrections departments’ resources. County commissioners initially decided not to sign the addendum, but reversed course after Uthmeier threatened to remove them from office if they didn’t. Commissioners Semrad and Wilson were the lone dissenters.
“Yes, I signed the damn thing because we really had to,” Demings said at the time. “We were put in a tough spot.”
Kevin Parker with the Florida Immigrant Coalition, however, said legal professional and national advocacy organizations his group has spoken to “believe Orange County stands in a unique and perhaps the best position to seek court guidance on the limits of local government cooperation with ICE.”
“It’s important that the residents of this county believe that their local government officials are doing everything in their power to protect them from racial profiling and inhuman treatment they’re seeing online and in the news every day,” Parker said.
Demings, however, said that although they don’t agree with Uthmeier’s interpretation of their obligation to sign that ICE agreement addendum, he doesn’t see the point in taking legal action at this time. “I don’t see a legal predicate or something that we’re trying to clarify at this point that is necessary.”
County attorney Jeff Newton also said that he believed it would be “premature” to pursue litigation, arguing that there’s “no real basis” for doing so at this time. “I think there may come a point in time where this county may have to file some litigation, but that time is not today.”
Nearly 26 percent of Orange County’s population is foreign-born, as of 2023 Census data. That’s almost double the national U.S. rate of 14 percent. A new study from researchers at the University of South Florida in Tampa, surveying immigrant experiences in Central Florida, found that Florida’s immigration policies and the federal crackdown on undocumented immigrants has had an emotional, financial and physical toll on migrants with mixed legal statuses, in addition to U.S. born citizens in mixed-status households.
Survey respondents told researchers they were afraid to go looking for work, go on walks or even listen to music too loud in their own homes for fear neighbors would call law enforcement.
“We’re good people; we’re people who, during the time we’ve been here, have contributed to this country. We pay our property taxes, our work taxes, our car taxes, everything, we pay taxes on everything,” said survey respondent Alberto, a 57-year-old undocumented man from Mexico who’s lived in the U.S. for 27 years. “They make us look like criminals, but in reality, we’re not.”
According to data from the Deportation Data Project, prepared by Stateline, Florida has seen more than 20,100 immigration arrests since January under the Trump administration. The vast majority of those detained — 68 percent — had no criminal conviction.
Following the arrival of the U.S. Border Patrol in Charlotte Saturday morning, hundreds of protesters gathered at First Ward Park in the afternoon and marched through uptown, delivering a clear message to federal agents: “Get out.”
Rosa Ramirez attended the emergency protest with her mother, Martha Ramirez, who held a sign saying, “Stop kidnapping our neighbors.” There have been many reports around the Charlotte region of federal police — their identities shielded with masks and license plates covered — detaining people.
“They’ve been doing terrible things in Chicago, and we’re not happy that they’re bringing it here to North Carolina,” Martha Ramirez said.
As the daughter of a father from the Dominican Republic, Rosa Ramirez said she feels that the immigrant community is being racially profiled, especially after hearing about a U.S. citizen in Charlotte who was pulled out of his truck after agents broke the window.
“None of us have any real feeling of safety,” Rosa Ramirez said. “I’m here to use my voice and to use the rights that I hopefully still have to defend those who don’t have their papers and documents at this moment.”
Former Charlotte mayor Jennifer Roberts was among the hundreds of people to gather in First Ward Park on Saturday. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
The U.S. Border Patrol has not disclosed how many agents were sent from Chicago to the city, nor how long they intend to remain. Their activities began in the morning, but it’s unclear which federal other agencies are involved in this operation.
In recent developments, at least 200 U.S. Border Patrol agents were stationed in Chicago, assisting the Trump Administration’s efforts to address illegal immigration.
Since September, the agency reports arresting 1,500 individuals, according to CBS News. Federal agents have made arrests across Chicago and surrounding suburbs, questioning residents and, at times, using tear gas on both civilians and local law enforcement.
“Immigrants are an integral part of our community and our workforce,” Martha Ramirez said, noting labor needs and contributions such as helping western North Carolina rebuild after Hurricane Helene and other natural disasters. She said she believes migration is a human right.
“We should be welcoming those folks here, and those folks aren’t asking for anything but the privilege to work and to contribute to our economy in the same way that any other American citizen does,” she said.
Community organizations led protesters with loud chants against Border Patrol agents being in Charlotte. Some of the participating organizations included Seeking Justice, Poor People’s Campaign, Housing Justice Coalition, Blakk Liberation, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Protesters in uptown Charlotte march on Saturday. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@heraldonline.com
Kass Ottley of Seeking Justice said she liked seeing the large crowd but encouraged more people in the region to get involved and push racial differences aside.
“We have to come together,” she said. “That’s the only way we’re going to win.”
Joel Simpson of the Poor People’s Campaign spoke against the Trump Administration’s budget boosts for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He said that money could go towards other needs, such as healthcare or food programs to help people.
“We know that this is an attack on people’s dignity and humanity,” Simpson said. “It’s an attack on our constitutional rights, and we won’t be silent about it.”
Protesters in uptown Charlotte on Saturday. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@heraldonline.com
Alison Yanez and her sister, Danna Yanez, said they’re not going to be quiet either. Their family came to America from Honduras for a better life.
“I feel bad for the families that fear coming out to the streets and speaking for themselves,” Alison Yanez said. “I’m here today to speak for those who can’t.”
“They’re just grabbing people out of their cars … they’re just harassing them,” Danna Yanez said about the treatment. “But we’re all humans, and we’re all on stolen land. What are they (Border Patrol) here for?”
Protesters gather in uptown Charlotte Saturday to protest federal agents arrested people in the city. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@heraldonline.com
Protesters hold signs and a large image of President Trump Saturday at the No Borders Protest in uptown Charlotte. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@heraldonline.com
Demonstrators march Saturday in uptown Charlotte. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@heraldonline.com
Marlon Florian holds a Mexican flag during the protest in uptown Charlotte on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@heraldonline.com
Protesters in uptown Charlotte on Saturday. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@heraldonline.com
Hundreds march from First Ward Park in uptown Charlotte in the No Border Patrol protest on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 Tracy Kimball tkimball@heraldonline.com
Protesters in uptown Charlotte march on Saturday. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@heraldonline.com
Demonstrators chant during the protest in uptown Charlotte on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@heraldonline.com
Demonstrators march Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, at the protest in uptown Charlotte. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@heraldonline.com
Former Charlotte mayor Jennifer Roberts was among the hundreds of people to gather in First Ward Park on Saturday. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
Hundreds march from First Ward Park in uptown Charlotte in the protest on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@heraldonline.com
Chase Jordan is a business reporter for The Charlotte Observer, and has nearly a decade of experience covering news in North Carolina. Prior to joining the Observer, he was a growth and development reporter for the Wilmington StarNews. The Kansas City native is a graduate of Bethune-Cookman University.
Federal authorities refuse to release a Michigan man in a pending deportation case, despite his life-threatening leukemia and the inconsistent health care he’s received while in custody since August, his lawyer said Thursday.Related video above: Massachusetts city council passes resolution barring police from assisting ICEThe American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is seeking a bond hearing for Jose Contreras-Cervantes, which could allow him to return to his Detroit-area family and doctors while his case winds through immigration court. He’s currently being held at a detention center about three hours away.Contreras-Cervantes, a 33-year-old married father of three who has been living in the U.S. for about 20 years, but not legally, was arrested at an Aug. 5 traffic stop in Macomb County, near Detroit. He had no criminal record beyond minor traffic offenses, said ACLU lawyer Miriam Aukerman.Contreras-Cervantes was diagnosed last year with chronic myeloid leukemia, a life-threatening cancer of the bone marrow, said his wife, Lupita Contreras.”The doctor said he has four to six years to live,” she said.His detention is a consequence of the Trump administration’s policy of refusing to agree to bond hearings for immigrants if they entered the U.S. illegally, even if they lack a criminal record. The policy is a reversal of past practices and it has been successfully challenged, including this week in Washington state.”We don’t just lock people up and throw away the key,” Aukerman said. “Judges decide who should be behind bars. That is true for citizens and noncitizens. … Immigration cases can take months or even years.”U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had no immediate comment on the case.Contreras-Cervantes was shuttled from Michigan to Ohio and then back to Michigan and didn’t receive medication for 22 days, his wife said.He is now getting a substitute medication at North Lake Processing Center, a privately operated detention center in Baldwin, Michigan, not the specific medication recommended by his doctors, Aukerman said.The ACLU filed a petition Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, asking a judge to order bond hearings for Contreras-Cervantes and seven other people who are in custody.”What the (Trump) administration is doing is trying to crush people’s spirits, make them give up,” and agree to deportation, Aukerman said. “We’re saying no. They’re entitled to due process.”
DETROIT —
Federal authorities refuse to release a Michigan man in a pending deportation case, despite his life-threatening leukemia and the inconsistent health care he’s received while in custody since August, his lawyer said Thursday.
Related video above: Massachusetts city council passes resolution barring police from assisting ICE
The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is seeking a bond hearing for Jose Contreras-Cervantes, which could allow him to return to his Detroit-area family and doctors while his case winds through immigration court. He’s currently being held at a detention center about three hours away.
Contreras-Cervantes, a 33-year-old married father of three who has been living in the U.S. for about 20 years, but not legally, was arrested at an Aug. 5 traffic stop in Macomb County, near Detroit. He had no criminal record beyond minor traffic offenses, said ACLU lawyer Miriam Aukerman.
Contreras-Cervantes was diagnosed last year with chronic myeloid leukemia, a life-threatening cancer of the bone marrow, said his wife, Lupita Contreras.
“The doctor said he has four to six years to live,” she said.
His detention is a consequence of the Trump administration’s policy of refusing to agree to bond hearings for immigrants if they entered the U.S. illegally, even if they lack a criminal record. The policy is a reversal of past practices and it has been successfully challenged, including this week in Washington state.
“We don’t just lock people up and throw away the key,” Aukerman said. “Judges decide who should be behind bars. That is true for citizens and noncitizens. … Immigration cases can take months or even years.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had no immediate comment on the case.
Contreras-Cervantes was shuttled from Michigan to Ohio and then back to Michigan and didn’t receive medication for 22 days, his wife said.
He is now getting a substitute medication at North Lake Processing Center, a privately operated detention center in Baldwin, Michigan, not the specific medication recommended by his doctors, Aukerman said.
The ACLU filed a petition Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, asking a judge to order bond hearings for Contreras-Cervantes and seven other people who are in custody.
“What the (Trump) administration is doing is trying to crush people’s spirits, make them give up,” and agree to deportation, Aukerman said. “We’re saying no. They’re entitled to due process.”
Candles and carnations sit atop a bed of flyers advertising ways to report sightings of ICE in the community. The flyers were distributed at a vigil Friday night at Fort Worth’s Marine Park.
Lillie Davidson
Candles flickered against the sunset at Marine Park on Friday as local activists gathered for a vigil for the three surviving victims of Wednesday’s shooting at a Dallas ICE facility.
A Mexican flag pinned to a nearby tree flapped in the breeze alongside a sign that read, “Say their names.”
The vigil was the second one held in Dallas-Fort Worth this week by the North Texas Brown Berets, an immigrant advocacy group. Activists gathered outside Dallas’ Parkland Hospital on Thursday.
On one table at Friday’s vigil, candles and flowers sat atop a bed of Brown Beret flyers bearing the instructions for how to report sightings of ICE agents in the community.
“All the narrative that’s being pushed is that it’s agents that are being affected and ICE agents that are being targeted,” said Daniel Matallana, a member of the Brown Berets. “Our people constantly get targeted, they constantly live in fear of even going outside and this is furthering that attack.”
As much as the vigil was in support of the wounded, Matallana said, it was also to show the community that immigrants are not afraid.
“Don’t be afraid,” Matallana said when asked what he’d like the world to know. “The powers that be are just keeping us down and trying to have us afraid and listening to their lies. The only thing we can do is stand up and stand with each other.”
Lillie Davidson is a breaking news reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She graduated from TCU in 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, is fluent in Spanish, and can complete a crossword in five minutes.
A North Carolina city has approved a measure declaring itself a “Fourth Amendment Workplace” and boosting protections for illegal immigrant workers targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The Durham City Council passed the resolution on Tuesday with a unanimous vote to shield city workers against raids and arrests carried out by federal officials, according to The Duke Chronicle.
The Fourth Amendment protects citizens against unreasonable searches and arrests, and requires warrants with probable cause of a crime before seizing a person or property.
The resolution instructs city staff to “uphold the 4th amendment at their workplace and city agencies and report back to Council any barriers to effective training on the 4th Amendment for any departments,” The Chronicle reported.
The Durham City Council passed a resolution protecting illegal immigrants from ICE raids with a unanimous vote.(David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
The city has “historically pursued equity and safety for all residents,” the resolution stated, adding that having the trust of residents is essential to carrying out its operations.
The measure emphasizes that the threat of “unconstitutional seizure” has prevented migrants in the city from “safely engaging in public life, including pursuing employment and education.”
The resolution comes after four ICE agents in plain clothes showed up without warning at the Durham County Courthouse in July to detain an illegal immigrant facing a felony charge for domestic violence, although the man did not make it to his scheduled court appearance and no arrests were made, WRAL reported.
“Our residents witnessed ICE agents in our community, instilling widespread fear and uncertainty,” Mayor Leo Williams said in a statement after the incident. “While local leaders cannot legally override the federal government’s use and weaponization of ICE, we can and must stand in strategic solidarity with our neighbors.”
The city passed a resolution to declare itself a “Fourth Amendment Workplace” and boost protections for migrant workers targeted by ICE.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
“This is a direct threat to the safety and dignity of our communities. The Courthouse should be a place where people can seek justice, not where they’re hunted down by federal agents,” Durham County Board of Commissioners Chair Nida Allam, who was part of the demonstration, said at the time.
At the council meeting for the resolution, several migrants and their families spoke in favor of its passage, expressing their anxieties in day-to-day life, according to The Chronicle. Other residents also pushed for added protections for illegal immigrants and training for city staff to enforce the new measure.
“Durham celebrates a rich diversity of residents, and we understand that the Trump administration’s mass deportation targets a completely manufactured panic surrounding immigrants, puts anyone who does not appear white, anyone who does not speak English or has an accent, anyone regardless of papers or immigration status, at risk of abuse, abduction and even deportation to [a] country they have no ties to,” Elise Ballan, chair of the Durham Workers’ Rights Commission, said at the meeting.
Durham joins Carrboro, which became the first North Carolina town to adopt a Fourth Amendment Workplace resolution in May.
In February, ICE arrested 11 people in Durham who were in the U.S. illegally, according to federal officials. Some Durham residents reported being concerned about the safety of their family members after the arrests.
The resolution emphasizes that the threat of “unconstitutional seizure” has prevented migrants in the city from “safely engaging in public life.”(Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The federal government accused Durham in April of being a so-called “sanctuary” community for allegedly failing to cooperate with immigration officials.
Local officials have since said the “sanctuary” label had “no legal or factual basis,” according to The Chronicle.
Last year, the North Carolina General Assembly overrode Democrat Gov. Josh Stein’s veto of a bill that forces sheriffs to cooperate with federal immigration efforts.
Mayor Pro Tempore Mark Anthony Middleton said at a candidate forum earlier this week that he would never back collaboration between Durham police and ICE, The Chronicle reported.
In a nation that prides itself on being built by immigrants, North Fair Oaks — an unincorporated San Mateo County community informally known as “Little Mexico” by locals — is confronting a surge of intolerance toward immigrants, fueled by right-wing rhetoric.
As Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump intensifies his promise to carry out the largest mass deportation in American history at campaign rallies, residents gathered Thursday at Casa Circulo Cultural in North Fair Oaks to push back. Community members from this neighborhood of fewer than 15,000, predominantly Latino and Hispanic immigrants, united to advocate for enhanced protections in response to the escalating anti-immigrant pronouncements from the former president and his GOP allies.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 11 million people in the United States live without legal status. If Trump is elected and fulfills his promise to deport them all, it could have devastating consequences – including impacts on housing construction, farming and the economy as a whole.
North Fair Oaks is one of three areas in San Mateo County with a majority Hispanic or Latino population, alongside East Palo Alto in the south and Pescadero on the coast. Overall, at least 25% of San Mateo County’s 764,442 residents identify as Hispanic or Latino.
Maggie Cornejo, a first-generation Mexican American raised in North Fair Oaks, describes the current climate as reminiscent of the mid-2000s, when feared Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were a frequent presence in her neighborhood.
“A lot of people in my community are afraid of what could happen on Tuesday because one candidate is clearly more vocal about his views on the immigrant community,” Cornejo said.
Now a planning commissioner in nearby Redwood City, Cornejo reflected on her childhood trauma.
“I’m a native of North Fair Oaks, so I remember when many of my classmates’ parents were being deported,” Cornejo said. “That trauma still impacts our generation; we grew up with memories of ICE driving around here to pick people up.”
State Senator Josh Becker, a Democrat representing most of San Mateo County and parts of northern Santa Clara County, addressed community members who may feel demoralized or fearful due to rising anti-immigrant sentiment.
“We have thousands of immigrant farmworkers along the San Mateo coast supporting a vibrant agricultural ecosystem, but they weren’t heard, seen, or valued until the pandemic,” Becker said. “Suddenly, people acknowledged them as essential workers. We also have many Asian immigrants — Chinese, Korean, Japanese. To me, that diversity is what makes America great; it’s literally the melting pot.”
Becker also discussed Senate Bill 537, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September, which memorializes the deportation of U.S. citizens and legal residents of Mexican descent between 1929 and 1944. The bill mandates the construction of a memorial in the city of Los Angeles or the county to honor this historical event.
“President Herbert Hoover, during the 1930s, faced tough economic times and said, ‘We need these jobs for real Americans,’” Becker said. “He launched a mass deportation effort, resulting in the deportation of not only immigrants but also citizens.”
Becker cited government estimates indicating that 60% of those deported during that period were American citizens, totaling almost 2 million people.
“We’re here to say no; we’re not going to let that happen on our watch,” he asserted.
Becker and local leaders at Thursday’s press conference assured residents they would work to ensure California’s sanctuary protections of migrants would remain, despite Trump’s threats to defund law enforcement agencies that refuse to cooperate with ICE deportations.
“There are trainings on community responses to ICE; we can ensure people’s due process and rights are honored. We’ll bring community groups together if it comes to that,” Becker said.
Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, founder of the nonprofit Ayudando Latinos a Soñar, cautioned that the use of violent language can translate into real-world physical violence.
“For those fed this vile anti-immigrant rhetoric, they’re taking actions into their own hands to be vicious against immigrants,” Arriaga, a clinical mental health therapist, stated. “We’re seeing what happened in Springfield, and it’s heartbreaking.”
Arriaga referred to the increased threats against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, following Trump’s unfounded claims that migrants were stealing and eating pets. According to a CNN report, two local Walmarts and several schools were evacuated due to threats stemming from Trump’s comments, prompting the deployment of additional security and bomb detection dogs to ensure the city’s safety.
Arriaga is all too familiar with violence against immigrants here at home.
As some recent political polls show growing approval for Trump among Latino voters, North Fair Oaks resident Rafael Avendaño, an immigrant from El Salvador and now a U.S. citizen, urged fellow Latinos to reconsider their support.
“The Republican Party that I know built NACARA, which allowed me to obtain documentation status. We’re very far from the Republican Party I remember,” Avendaño said, referring to the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act, which was signed in 1997 under President Bill Clinton but received some bipartisan support. “I hope that however you vote, you lean toward a choice that respects and loves your community members because that’s how this nation was built.”
