Federal officials confirmed this week that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will begin immigration enforcement operations in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In recent months, the Trump administration has rapidly expanded its enforcement operations throughout the United States, largely targeting Democratic-run cities. But its actions haven’t focused on increasing public safety but rather creating the biggest enforcement dragnet possible.
A recent report from the American Immigration Council revealed that, as of June 2025, nearly 50% of all people held in immigration detention had no criminal conviction or pending charge at all.
Read more: Mass Deportation: Analyzing the Trump Administration's Attacks on Immigrants, Democracy, and America |
The Council’s client, Edicson Quintero, faced such horrific abuse in El Salvador’s mega-prison that he cut his own stomach, using his blood to write a scrawling protest sign. Mr. Quintero—a 28-year-old carpenter, fisherman, and father of two young children—was one of 252 Venezuelan migrants whom the Trump administration shipped off to the so-called Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), incommunicado and without due process.
Now, recent reporting from the New York Times has shed light on the horrendous conditions our client and the others endured.
Prior to Mr. Quintero’s release from CECOT, the Council challenged his prolonged, unconstitutional detention through a habeas corpus lawsuit.
Read more: Challenging Illegal Detention of Father of Two in Notorious Salvadoran Prison |
