News & Commentary

“It’s one thing to know that people are being detained and separated every day. It’s another to experience that pain and suffering for yourself,” explains Yolanda Zavala, a mother of five who immigrated to North Carolina from southern Mexico more than two decades ago. 

In 2016, an immigration judge in Charlotte threatened a 2-year-old child in his courtroom with a dog attack if the child did not stop making noise. While a Spanish interpreter translated, Judge V. Stuart Couch repeatedly yelled at the boy that, “I have a very big dog in my office, and if you don’t

I am an undocumented immigrant who moved to North Carolina at 21-years-old. This is my story of fighting against House Bill 370. (English/Spanish)

The General Assembly is about to approve a dangerous anti-immigrant bill that would force all North Carolina sheriffs to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detain and deport community members or face removal from office. We're urging Gov. Cooper to stop it.

The images of Oscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter Valeria, who lost their lives trying to seek refuge in the U.S., have left us haunted. They serve as an important reminder of the urgency of the fight for immigrant justice and the need to stand up to the Trump administration's policies.

Last year, ICE sent upwards of 4,500 requests to local law enforcement in North Carolina, asking them to hold people in jail when state law would otherwise mandate their release. For the people targeted by these requests, there are few options.

In 2008, Yolanda Zavala’s 18-year-old son was ticketed by a police officer for driving without a license. What should’ve been a minor citation turned into his deportation.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using mass location surveillance to target immigrants. And local law enforcement departments, including some in North Carolina are feeding their residents’ personal information to ICE, even when it violates local privacy laws or sanctuary policies.

Recent raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in North Carolina were a failed attempt to achieve by force what was soundly rejected at the ballot box last November: Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.