Category World News

Five days of immigration raids and protests have come to an end thanks to official North Carolina immigration officials’ signal that the city of Charlotte has recovered from its five-day crackdown.

Mayor of Charlotte Vi Lyles claimed on Thursday that the Democrat-led city’s border patrol appeared to have ended its crackdown.

The U.S. Border Patrol’s operations in Charlotte appear to have ended. She wrote on social media, “I’m relieved for our community, the residents, businesses, and all those who were targeted and impacted by this intrusion.”

It is crucial that we come together as we move forward, not as separate groups divided by recent events but as a single Charlotte community.

Federal officials assured Sheriff Garry McFadden that “Operation Charlotte’s Web” had been completed and that no further operations would take place on Thursday, according to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office.

In Mecklenburg County, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will continue to operate as they have always, according to a statement from the sheriff’s department.

According to federal law, “ICE has full authority to detain, apprehend, and take into custody any undocumented immigrant.”

The operation began on November 15 when US President Donald Trump made the announcement that Charlotte would receive “surging resources.”

By praising local officials for adopting “sanctuary” laws that let undocumented people “roam free on American streets,” it justified the upsurge.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Wednesday that it had made more than 250 arrests as of Tuesday night during an update.

During the operation, immigration efforts expanded to Raleigh, the state capital, and other nearby cities.

However, Charlotte, the state’s largest city and a hub for tech businesses, had received a lot of resistance from residents. 300 people call Charlotte home, compared to 911.

For instance, hundreds of protesters gathered outside Manolo’s Bakery to protest raids that temporarily shut its doors to customers and employees. Another protest occurred outside a Border Patrol headquarters where Border Patrol agents had gathered.

In show of support for the immigrant community, students from East Mecklenburg High School, Northwest School of the Arts, and other schools also staged a walkout.

Local media reported a drop in school attendance of nearly 15% on Monday, but it was not known how many of those absences were caused by protests, concerns about immigration enforcement practices, or seasonal trends like the flu.

Locals in the Charlotte area recorded instances of car windows being smashed and people being hit to the ground and left bloody as a result of the rise in immigration operations.

A new wave of Border Patrol operations is anticipated in another southern city, New Orleans, as Charlotte’s surge of federal immigration enforcement operations settles. The “Swamp Sweep” is how that operation is referred to.

In addition, more immigration enforcement operations have been conducted in other Democratic-controlled cities, raising questions about the methods being used and the respectability of the laws being upheld.

Los Angeles, Chicago, Memphis, and Washington, DC are among those cities.

Gaza’s Government Media Office said on Thursday that Israeli forces and tanks had advanced about 300 metres (984 feet) beyond the so-called “yellow line” in eastern Gaza City.

“The fate of many of these families remains unknown amidst the shelling that targeted the area”, the office said, adding that the expansion of the yellow line shows a “blatant disregard” for the ceasefire deal.

Set out in the agreement between Israel and Hamas, the yellow line refers to an unmarked boundary where the Israeli military repositioned itself when the deal came into effect last month.

It has allowed Israel, which routinely fires at Palestinians who approach the line, to retain control over more than half of the coastal territory.

Reporting from Gaza City on Thursday, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said Israeli soldiers were seen placing yellow blocks and signs to identify the new deployment line, deeper into the city’s eastern neighbourhood of Shujayea.

“But the entire boundary has not been marked, so many Palestinians do not know exactly where it is”, Khoudary said.

“With this latest advancement in Gaza City’s Shujayea, more Palestinians are unable to reach their homes. People say this is a cage, as they’re being pushed and squeezed into the western parts of Gaza”.

The Israeli military has not publicly commented on the reports that it has gone beyond the yellow line in violation of the ceasefire.

‘ When will this nightmare end? ‘

The move comes amid a surge in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip that have sown fear across the war-ravaged enclave.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said on Thursday morning that at least 32 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours and another 88 were wounded.

Medics said an Israeli air strike on a house in Bani Suheila, a town east of Khan Younis, killed three people, including a baby girl, and wounded 15 others.

Israel has violated the truce nearly 400 times since it came into force on October 10, according to an Al Jazeera analysis.

A displaced Palestinian man, 36-year-old Mohammed Hamdouna, told the AFP news agency that people are being killed daily in continued shelling.

“We are still living in tents. He claimed that all the basic necessities of life are still missing because the cities are rubble, crossings are still closed, and there are still no crossings.

Lina Kuraz, a 33-year-old resident of Tuffah east of Gaza City, also told AFP that she was concerned about the resumption of the war.