ICE and CBP in Charlotte

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ICE and CBP in Charlotte

Reflections on November 19, 2025 by Wes Fryer

Nov 20, 2025

I recorded this video this morning before school in our car on Facebook Live. Here’s the (slightly) edited transcript of my video. I’ll include referenced articles and links I mentioned in the video at the bottom of this transcript. The video is also available on YouTube.

Good morning, everyone. This is Wes Fryer in Charlotte, North Carolina. Today is Wednesday, November 19, 2025, and I want to talk about ICE and CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) here in Charlotte. We are living in some really surreal times, and thankfully I’ve had an opportunity just in the last two days to interact on social media with some different people who really disagree with some of my perceptions of reality and some of my opinions. I think this can be valuable, especially when it’s civil discourse. In one case, this is a classmate of mine from college who I’ve known for years, and we’ve interacted at different times. I really appreciate the chance to have some dialogue. It can be really hard—though not impossible—especially when people don’t know each other, to actually have a meaningful exchange of perceptions via social media, because the platforms don’t tend to be great at that. They’re better at letting us amplify folks we agree with and live in an echo chamber. I think it’s important to find people we trust and who we want to listen to. That’s key.

I’m sharing this as a Facebook Live, but I’ll also download the video and put it on YouTube, and I’ll share it there too. I posted my text response to my friend on Facebook yesterday, where I tried to explicate and explain what I perceive is happening right here in Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s before school, and I’m getting in the habit, maybe once a week, of doing these kinds of videos and talking about why I am acting to try to support our immigrant neighbors.

I’ll summarize my perspective briefly. Number one: I think we should follow the law. I am a former member of the United States Air Force. I’m a veteran. I’m an honorably discharged United States Air Force veteran, and I raised my hand when I became a cadet at the Air Force Academy and when I was commissioned on May 27, 1992, to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. I believe in the values of the Constitution of the United States. I believe that we should follow the law. I believe that immigrants, whether they have come here legally or illegally, are subject to the law and should follow the law. And I think that law enforcement should follow the law.

In the discussion that followed my initial post, my friend talked about “open borders.” I do not believe we should have open borders. I think we need immigration reform. I was really sad to see, in the late fall of 2024 just before our last presidential election, what I felt were some good-faith efforts to have bipartisan immigration reform, and those were opposed. That’s unfortunate. We really need compromise in our political system. It’s the bedrock of a representative democracy—a multi-ethnic, multi-party democracy. We don’t have all the parties of Europe—we could talk about that—but we’ve got two main parties, and we need to be able to compromise and reach some agreement. It’s very unfortunate that immigration is one of these things that hasn’t been dealt with.

Here’s what’s really upsetting, and I could not remain silent and have this happen around me. I don’t know how anyone could. Today, we literally have masked agents dressed in black tactical gear who are not operating with a warrant issued by a judge. They are driving around our city in unmarked vehicles, and they are abducting people. In some cases, they are using rifles to break open the windows of trucks and cars. They are pulling people from their vehicles, arresting them, and abducting them.

I heard one of our commissioners for Mecklenburg County—which is the county here in Charlotte—talk on the radio yesterday as I was coming home from school. He explained that they have reached out to law enforcement. Law enforcement is not communicating with our local officials. The federal law enforcement officers who are doing this are not coordinating. They’re not even announcing who they’re arresting or where they’ve taken them. Apparently these folks don’t even have the opportunity to make a phone call, which we’re supposed to have, right? You get arrested in the United States, you get to make a phone call. “I want my phone call.” Haven’t we all seen that innumerable times on television? We’ve heard about Miranda rights. These folks are being moved to secret locations, and we don’t even know who’s been arrested or where they are.

Folks, this is the United States of America. We’re not living in Argentina during the Dirty War. We’re not living in Russia. We are living in the United States of America. One of the things I pointed out is an excellent article I linked to—again, I’ll put this in the comments. I write a Substack called Resist and Heal, and I summarized my comments there. This isn’t just some random news article I read with no connection to my own life. One of the main people interviewed is Jennifer Roberts, our former mayor in Charlotte, and she’s also a friend. She goes to our church. I know her. I visit with her—not every week, but I did on Sunday at our potluck after church. She’s not making this up. This isn’t some twisted fabrication or fake AI-generated content.

This is happening. I’ve read multiple news sources, and this is beyond distressing. This is horrific.

So what am I doing? I am supporting organizations like Indivisible Charlotte, which has partnered with six or seven other organizations, many of whom have a direct focus on supporting immigrant communities in Charlotte. One of these groups is offering a free ICE verifier training. I haven’t been to one of these before, but I think part of this involves being out and available to help document what’s happening. I’ll share more about this after I (hopefully) get to go to this training tonight.

One of the things that we have today, as citizens of the world, is what I’m using right now: my smartphone. I am recording. I am sharing. I’m going to share links. We have the ability to use mobile technologies and the global internet to document, in some cases, things that are happening that should not be happening—the overreach of enforcement agents.

Think about George Floyd and the murder of George Floyd—because he was murdered—by a police officer in Minnesota. That officer is in prison, as he should be. I have friends who are police officers. I have friends who are veterans. The vast majority of folks that I know are great. They’re good people. But sometimes it does happen that we have overreach.

What’s unfortunately happening here in Charlotte is a calculated and intentional overreach of federal power. We need to peacefully and legally—and in a coordinated way—have direct nonviolent action to oppose and protest this overreach and these unconstitutional acts.

I’m on my own time. I’m using my own device. I’m sharing my own opinion. This opinion does not reflect the opinion of my employer or others. This is Wes Fryer. I have a constitutional right to share my opinion. And I think kidnapping and arresting people with masked agents who don’t have badges, who don’t identify themselves, and then taking people to secret locations where they cannot contact their family or a lawyer and nobody even knows who’s been taken—this is insane.

This is what’s happening in Charlotte, North Carolina, right now. This is what many groups, including Indivisible Charlotte, are opposing and working to end, because this should not be happening. We should have law enforcement officials who follow the law.

I hope you have a great day.