The Trump administration is planning to dispatch scores of Border Patrol agents to Charlotte and New Orleans to oversee immigration enforcement operations that could involve armored vehicles and special operations teams, according to internal government documents and U.S. officials.
Internal DHS preparations reviewed by CBS News listed Charlotte and New Orleans as the next targets of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Like in Chicago and Los Angeles — which have seen highly visible and often controversial federal immigration arrests in recent months — green-uniformed Border Patrol agents are expected to play a lead role in the operations in Charlotte and New Orleans.
The planned Border Patrol operation in Charlotte, where an operations center is being stood up, is expected to start soon, as early as next week, two sources familiar with the plans told CBS News.
Garry McFadden, the sheriff of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, said Thursday he had been “contacted by two separate federal officials confirming US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel will be arriving in the Charlotte area as early as this Saturday or the beginning of next week.”
Border Patrol’s focus is then expected to shift to New Orleans, where as many as 200 CBP agents could be deployed, according to the sources and internal DHS documents.
Armored vehicles, including so-called “BearCats,” have been requested for both Charlotte and New Orleans, alongside special operations agents, the internal documents show. Internally, officials have dubbed the plans “Charlotte Web” and “Catahoula Crunch,” references to the children’s novel and the official state dog of Louisiana, respectively.Â
Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Many of the Border Patrol agents deployed to the Chicago region earlier this fall, including outspoken commander Gregory Bovino, are expected to participate in the upcoming operations in Charlotte and New Orleans, two U.S. officials said. CBS News was first to report last week that Bovino and most Border Patrol agents would be leaving Chicago, and that they could be redirected to locations like Charlotte.
In a statement to CBS News Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed it is “surging” agents to Charlotte.
“We are surging DHS law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said. “There have been too many victims of criminal illegal aliens, and President Trump and Secretary Noem will step up to protect Americans when sanctuary politicians won’t.”
In a statement Friday, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, said, “Public safety is the top priority for all of us in government — that means fighting crime, not stoking fear or causing division.”
“We should all focus on arresting violent criminals and drug traffickers. Unfortunately, that’s not always what we have seen with ICE and Border Patrol Agents in Chicago and elsewhere around the country,” Stein said, noting that many of those detained there had no criminal convictions.
He urged North Carolinians “to remember our values,” follow the law and remain peaceful. And he added, “If you see any inappropriate behavior, use your phones to record and notify local law enforcement.”
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said Saturday in a joint statement with other local officials, the expected Border Patrol operations are “causing unnecessary fear and uncertainty” in the community, as previous operations in other cities like Chicago “have resulted in people without criminal records being detained and violent protests being the result of unwarranted actions.”
The latest plans illustrate the Trump administration’s continued reliance on Border Patrol agents to carry out its sweeping, nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration.
While Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the federal agency charged with enforcing U.S. immigration laws in the interior of the country, the Trump administration has deployed teams of Border Patrol agents to Chicago, Los Angeles and other places far away from the U.S.-Mexico border, where illegal crossings plunged to a 55-year low in fiscal year 2025.
In both Chicago and Los Angeles, the operations by Border Patrol agents, in many cases personally led by Bovino, have come under scrutiny, sparking protests and tense confrontations with local residents who have denounced the agency’s actions as overly aggressive.
ICE officers and Border Patrol agents are all federal immigration officials with the same legal authority to arrest people suspected of being in the country illegally. But their operations typically differ in style and nature.
While ICE has also aggressively expanded immigration enforcement across the country under Mr. Trump, its arrests continue to be, to a large extent, targeted operations driven by intelligence gathering and prior surveillance that typically target people in the U.S. illegally who also have committed crimes.Â
In Chicago and Los Angeles, on the other hand, Border Patrol agents have conducted “roving” operations that are more indiscriminate in nature, targeting places like Home Depot parking lots and worksites that they believe are frequented by people who don’t have legal permission to be in the U.S.
The use of force that Border Patrol has employed against protesters has also come under withering criticism, including from a federal judge in Chicago who imposed drastic limits on the ability for agents to deploy tear gas and crowd control tactics. Trump administration officials maintain agents have used the necessary force, citing instances of civilians interfering with operations or turning to violence.
“The use of force that I’ve seen has been exemplary — the least amount of force necessary to accomplish the mission,” Bovino told CBS News last month.
