Federal immigration enforcement agents have arrested more than 200 immigrants over the last three days in the Charlotte area, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The department said all of them were in the country illegally and at least 44 of them have criminal records.
WRAL Investigates spoke Tuesday with Durham-based immigration attorney Yesenia Polanco. She said she understands some people legally can be deported. She takes issue with how federal agents are conducting the operation.
“The issue I take with enforcement is the method, not enforcement outright,” Polanco said. “I'm an immigration lawyer. I'm not in the business of changing policy
Durham city councilmember Javiera Caballero spoke Tuesday about the enforcement operations throughout the Triangle.
“The narrative, the story, is, ‘we are here to catch criminals,’” Caballero said of the federal efforts. “We have great local [police departments and] great sheriffs here in North Carolina. They can handle that.”
