When the Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Charlotte’s Web on Nov. 15 in North Carolina’s largest city, it said it would be arresting “the worst of the worst” among people lacking legal immigration status.

Government statements about the immigration action, which quickly spread to Wake and Durham counties, mirrored claims across the country that agents were targeting violent criminals in the country without legal documentation.

But so far federal officials have not released evidence that would allow the public to verify that claim. They have not released the names of the majority of at least 370 people taken from North Carolina communities, some of them from worksites and retail store parking lots, or data on their criminal records.

“The idea that this is the worst of the worst is total nonsense,” said Marty Rosenbluth, a former North Carolina immigration lawyer now based near the Stewart Detention Facility in Lumpkin, Georgia, a federal detention site where some people taken from North Carolina are being held. “They’re going after low-hanging fruit because it boosts their numbers.”

On Monday, CBS News reported that it had obtained a document showing that fewer than a third of 270 people arrested by Border Patrol during Operation Charlotte’s Web had criminal histories, quoting a federal official saying that was “unlikely.”

The News & Observer has confirmed that at least one person taken by Border Patrol agents at a Wake County construction site did not have a criminal record.

Fatima Issela Velasquez-Antonio, 23, had no arrests or convictions other than two traffic violations when immigration officials detained her at her Raleigh-area HVAC job on Nov. 18, The N&O revealed last week. She does have a asylum-seeking case open in federal court, according to her lawyer.

Velasquez-Antonio entered the United States from Honduras when she was 14 after her father was murdered by a gang member, a family member said. Her mother had previously died from cancer.

Velasquez-Antonio on Tuesday was held at Stewart, a private prison used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. An immigration court judge on Tuesday told her that a recent Trump administration Justice Department ruling effectively prevented her from setting bond for anyone who entered the U.S. without legal authorization.

There is evidence that people without criminal charges were also detained prior to this month’s detention surge in North Carolina.

The Charlotte Observer documented in October that people arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in North Carolina from January until the end of June had no reported criminal charges or convictions.

The recent Border Patrol surge might be done in North Carolina for the time being, but the Trump administration’s push for detention and deportations isn’t likely to end soon. That’s likely by design, Rosenbluth told The N&O.

“Let’s be very clear, the real main purpose of this is just to create fear in the communities and hoping people will agree to deport themselves rather than risk being detained,” Rosenbluth said.

What about the ‘the worst of the worst’?

Starting on Nov. 15, Border Patrol agents, like those deployed in Chicago and Los Angeles, began approaching people at work sites, retail plaza parking lots and other places. Often masked, they sometimes asked people for proof of legal immigration status and detained those without it.

DHS claimed it launched the operation after some of “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens” were released “back on to North Carolina’s streets because of sanctuary policies.”

The Nov. 15 press release included a list of some of those individuals, including Jose Ulloa-Martienez, who DHS said was arrested for murder and “released after authorities failed to honor the ICE detainer.”

That claim was false, according to a review of court and jail records conducted by The Charlotte Observer. DHS subsequently corrected its claim.

ICE agents have taken custody of people with criminal records or pending charges in North Carolina this year, frequently in county jails.

ICE issues detainers, requests for local law enforcement to hold people until federal immigration authorities can pick them up. For instance, at least 38 people arrested since January in Forsyth County alone were held on detainers, data obtained by a Charlotte Observer reporter shows.

Many of their charges — including sex exploitation of a minor, kidnapping and first degree murder — fit some of the description that federal immigration officials used to describe their targets here this month.

That said, a Charlotte Observer analysis of ICE data obtained by UC Berkeley showed that, statewide, about one in five people arrested by ICE across the state from January to June 2025 had no reported criminal charges.

Nationally, available data is also showing such arrests. Of more than 200,000 people booked into detention by ICE officials across the country from the beginning of October 2024 to June 14, 2025, 65% had no criminal convictions, recent nonpublic data compiled by the Cato Institute shows.

“Moreover, more than 93 percent of ICE book-ins were never convicted of any violent offenses,” the nonpartisan public policy research group reported in June.

‘Advise these people what their rights are’

Federal authorities have also not released information on where they took people they took from North Carolina communities this month.

Rosenbluth said many people arrested in North Carolina end up in one of at least two detention centers in Georgia, as is the case with Velasquez-Antonio.

Some have limited charges as well as open immigration cases — like asylum proceedings, he said.

“ICE is hoping that by detaining them or re-detaining them, that they’ll give up their cases and agree to be deported,” Rosenbluth said. “Getting out on a bond at this point is almost impossible.”

While people detained in Georgia aren’t being fast-tracked to deportation, Rosenbluth said they often have potential legal options to pursue before being involuntarily deported.

“What we’re trying to do at the moment is to try and advise these people what their rights are,” Rosenbluth said. “And whether or not trying to fight their asylum cases while they’re detained is worth it.”

The News & Observer and the Charlotte Observer have asked DHS multiple times for specific information about people seized in the surge. In one case after The N&O asked again, the department submitted the questions as a Freedom of Information Act request.

Federal agencies can take months or longer to fill such requests.

Charlotte Observer investigative reporter Amber Gaudet contributed to this reporting.

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