Original subtitles

Where's your keys? Good.

You cross the border?

Yes?

What is that, "¿Crossa la frontera?"

- Cruza. - ¿Cruza?

- Okay, see? I'll say "crossa." - Cross the border?

Yeah, I go, "¿Crossa la frontera?"

And they'll go, "Si."

And I go, "Oh, illegal." That's it. That's all I need to know.

Crossed the border, he's illegal.

The frontier, though, right? It's not like the border. La frontera.

- Is that like... - "La frontera" is "the border."

- Oh, it is? - Yeah.

It doesn't mean, like, the EWI?

No, you just asked the guy if he crossed the border.

- See, Sean? - Oh, my God!

How long have you worked for Immigration, dude?

I'm really worried about the people you arrested, man.

And then I go, "Illegal or legal?"

And they go, "Illegal."

- Okay, yeah, you got that right. - Yeah.

I'm looking for them to nod their head.

How many we catch every day? It just depends.

- Is there seasons? - What's that?

- There seasons, like...? - No, it just depends.

Depends. You know.

I mean, what brought you to our attention was

you were arrested for driving under the influence...

- Yeah, yeah. - And then they let you go,

- Uh-huh. - Which normally...

you know, they wouldn't have done that.

'Cause I know the sheriff, he signed cancellation of the...

- The program, 287. - The program, 287.

Yeah, they changed policies now, so...

- I know. I know. - We had to come find you.

There's a lot of fear right now to talk publicly about our situations.

And what I thought we could begin with is what the ICE threats are

and how we can move forward from this.

Sean Gallagher, the field office director of ICE, said

that they're gonna increase the presence in the community.

With 287 gone, were relieved because we thought,

"Okay, they are just focusing on criminals."

But then we realized they were taking everybody away.

Honest, hard-working families started going down.

I'd be lying if I said I don't feel concerned,

but I also feel hopeful about what we can do together

to try to combat these issues.

So, I've been tracking ICE backlash

in counties where 287 or ICE affiliation has ended.

We are gonna project

that something's gonna happen in the next couple of weeks.

I think ICE is gonna do exactly what they said they were gonna do.

It's just as far as being prepared, have eyes in all of those different places

so that we know when stuff is going down.

Sort of like ICE Watch Network. Whatever the heck you want to call it.

Defrost.

Yeah, I think...

Right. Operation Defrost.

Did I tell you that ICE showed up to the CMPD event?

You didn't tell me what they did when they were there.

Nothing. They just sat there.

It was billed as a meeting to bridge the gap between law enforcement

and an immigrant community often living in the shadow of distrust

with Charlotte-Mecklenburg's police chief

and Mecklenburg County's new sheriff both taking questions about ICE

and the 287 program that officially ended here on Wednesday.

We were there, and we noticed

two people who seemed to be out of place.

They were ICE agents.

He just, like, is tracking me across this room,

trying to figure out where I'm going, who I'm talking to, what I'm saying.

I wasn't sure if I walked out the door, if they were gonna go and get me,

or if they were gonna get some other community members.

So it was a scary moment.

Can I ask you a couple of questions?

- No. - No?

- I'm not here to answer questions. - So, you're just as...

I'm a concerned citizen just like anybody else.

I went as a citizen of Mecklenburg County. I didn't... you know what I mean?

- Concerned citizen. - Yeah, I'm very concerned.

I didn't say...

They were were upset, 'cause we didn't... They had some questions...

about our plans.

What did you learn tonight here?

I learned that Mecklenburg County is not as safe as it was.

They were concerned that ICE would ramp up activities,

you know, because they got out of the 287 program.

And...

Of course, we're gonna ramp up activities.

Approaching.

Was that him? I was just trying to locate him.

- Yeah, that's him. - Go get him.

We currently have eight arrest teams actively hunting in the field,

approximately six transport teams.

There's at least 50 officers in this operation this week.

We kind of fish with a net.

They don't honor our detainers, and we're forced to fish with a net.

You're looking for one guy, and he's in a van full of painters,

and they're all going to work in the morning,

and they all turn out not to have any status,

everybody in the van gets arrested.

Well, this is a reaction, what you're seeing today.

All right.

Guys, this way.

All right, have a seat right here.

You, here.

All right, gentlemen, if you guys got belts...

If you have belts, please take them off.

Also take the laces off of your shoes.

Okay.

Hey, Eric, did we hit 40?

Did we hit 40?

- Forty-one. - Forty-one?

So, yeah, you need to get back in and pick me up.

We're going back out.

- You need help with that? - I'm just gonna tell them one each.

Pass it out. One burrito each.

Yeah, put it in the pile, okay?

'Cause remember, we've have six o'clock bus,

and everyone's gotta be on it.

Take it off.

All right. Nice piece of work.

- Hello. - Mama.

What's up, son?

Tell Jennifer I won't be able to pick up the girl

because Immigration arrested me and Javier.

Oh.

- Okay? Don't go to the house, Mommy. - Okay.

Okay, I'm here at home.

Okay, get out of there.

- Okay, bye. - Bye.

Bye.

- Thank you, sir. - No problem.

How long you been here? You speak good English.

- I been here 14 years, 15. - Wow.

Yeah, bitch, I speak English.

My last stop, one of the guys goes, "What are you doing?"

I said, "You're under arrest."

"What am I under arrest for?" I said, "You're here illegally."

He goes, "You can't arrest us for being here illegally anymore."

I said, "Really? Watch this."

"You can't arrest us for being here illegally anymore."

They told me at a press conference that this is a sanctuary place,

"and you're not allowed to arrest me anymore."

They did?

They lied to you.

So, they're thinking that we're the locals.

You know what I mean? They don't realize that we're Immigration,

so they think we're the locals. So, what we do is...

They're like, "You can't arrest us anymore."

And we're like, "Oh, really?"

I don't have any problems. I have kids and a wife.

I was headed to work.

But they don't care about anything.

I've been here for 16 years, and I've never had any problems.

It's gonna be about 31 there,

and then Charlotte is sitting at about 39.

Yeah, I wanted...

I wanted 100.

Charlotte, as a metropolitan area,

has been growing by leaps and bounds.

One out of every six workers now in this area is not a US citizen.

The illegal migration to the North Carolina area

has been going on since the 1990s

when we had major hurricane damage to the state,

and with the reconstruction industry brought in a lot of job opportunities,

and after those folks finished, they liked it, and they decided to stay.

Powerful hurricane Michael is making landfall

in the Florida Panhandle

as Panama City braces for this category four storm.

Well, right now, there's no intact houses that I can...

Well, one.

Pretty much all the houses are missing roofs, siding...

And, Patricia, when you look out

at the devastation outside your window,

is this something that you think will take weeks, months, years to fix?

I would have to say it could be even years.

First three or four days was just a blur.

Getting the generators, keeping the generators going,

getting something fixed up for us.

And then I guess you set in, and you start saying,

- "Well, what did we just go through?" - What do we do?

We lost so many people here in town... from the storm and all.

I just don't think our workforce was here to handle It.

Just don't think we had the people here that would handle the situation.

So we needed help. Yes, we needed help.

All I can say is I've been seeing a lot of Mexicans.

Whether or not they're legal or illegal,

as long as they give me a quality work, they gotta live too.

I welcome them.

But in the back of my mind, I hate to say, but...

I could probably ask each one of them to see their green card,

and I don't know if they got it or not. I don't care.

That's the company. That's their problem.

All I want is a quality job.

I want my house where it don't leak, where I can live comfortable.

It's just like your farm workers

and your ones that work the orchards and all.

When the season is in for that particular crop,

that's where they go to.

When that's done, they move to another area

that might have another crop of stuff coming in.

You know, they...

That's the way they live.

But I gotta admit. They are out there working.

They're doing jobs sometimes

that I'd say us American's don't want to do.

In Bay County, where we are now, contractors have been difficult to find.

How many? How many?

After the storm, we had an influx of Hispanic workers

who came in to do the construction work because that's what they do.

They follow these storms and disasters around.

That's how they make their living.

I think, right now, most people are happy to see them here

because they're getting the work done.

You're in probably one of the most conservative areas

of the country.

President Trump came to Panama City Beach

to see the damage and the recovery efforts from the devastation of Hurricane Michael.

Bay County turned out huge for Trump in the 2016 election,

and they are clearly still big supporters of his.

They wanna fly the flag of Guatemala and Honduras and El Salvador

right into our border.

I mean, when you have 15,000 people marching up,

how do you stop these people?

"Shoot them!"

That's only in the panhandle you can get away with that stuff.

Only in the panhandle.

Undocumented immigrants, here as part of the rebuilding efforts,

were doing their job hanging Sheetrock,

and the police who called ICE on them were doing their job.

At this intersection is where this disagreement begins.

There's a lot of people here from the Mexican race.

I wish they'd get legal and come to work, 'cause the place needs it.

But, you know, not everybody wants to play by the rules.

If you want to come to America,

come in through the door instead of crawling through the window.

Hey...

they gotta do what they gotta do, but I mean...

if they get caught, it's their own fault.

- What kind of work? What kind of work? - Huh?

My boss man told me to come get a person to come work.

Saket Soni. Pleasure to meet you.

We are from an organization called Resilience Force

helping with people's rights,

but our main goal is to try and help recover people's money

lost through wage theft.

So, he's owed $1,590.

And there are messages back and forth

between you and the contractor, right?

"Finish the job, or I'll call the police," he said.

He's saying,

"You're very problematic. When I get paid, I'll pay you,

or we could just decide I can call the police on you."

You've texted him, and he hasn't responded.

So, ideally, we and you can go together to get the money.

Did you live here in the parking lot out of your car? Mm-hmm.

- This is where you sleep, huh? - Yeah.

And how long have you been here in Panama City?

- When the hurricane come... - Mm-hmm.

We come in the next two weeks.

- So this is the home that you rebuilt? - Yeah.

- This one here? - Yeah.

Who are you guys? Huh?

Who are you guys?

- Who are you? - I'm the contractor.

- What's your name? - Are you the contractor?

- Yeah. - Okay.

I know you hung the drywall, but it's horrible.

Like, I've never seen such bad work.

- Would you guys agree with that? - The mud...

Would you guys agree with that assessment or...

Go look. You go look right now! Go look.

Okay, let's backtrack a little bit.

These workers did work here and weren't paid one cent.

And ultimately, the law is that, as a general contractor,

we go up the chain. Ultimately, you are responsible.

The work's not done right. Sue me!

I'll destroy you. Come at me.

Joe, you know about drywall, right?

I know enough to know this wasn't great work.

- So we should trust you, right? - What are you asking?

I'm saying we know about wage theft and the laws in Florida.

So did you just say

that these men did the work, and you're not gonna pay them?

Is that what you just said?

- Did you just say that you don't... - No, I didn't say that at all.

Did you say Gino worked for you?

You know what? I will work something out with you.

So, what can we work out?

To work on getting these guys something.

Okay, great.

Who are you?

¿Cómo estás? Saket Soni.

We're with an organization that represents the workers.

You're gonna pay these workers, though, right, at the end of the day?

- Of course. - All right. That's good.

Come on, man!

No, there's so many people out there who's not paying.

We started working in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

But now we go to disaster areas around the country.

We came here to tell you that you do have rights,

even if you are undocumented.

They picked up someone here, the police did...

- Mm-hmm. - For standing here looking for work.

What the police is doing is arresting people

and then transferring them to ICE custody.

We want to have a meeting with all the workers

because we want to create a group.

Raise your hand if you worked after Hurricane Andrew.

Many of you worked after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, right?

What about Hurricane Ike? What about Hurricane Sandy?

Irma, Florida?

Right now, we have people who say,

"Well, we don't want the undocumented in our neighborhoods, in our cities.

It's okay if they fix our roofs."

What are the things we have in common?

Work accidents.

Work accidents.

- Work mistreatment. - Work mistreatment, okay.

- Discrimination. - Discrimination.

They didn't pay us.

That's why I'm here, and I want to be part of your group.

We have to convince Florida we want the freedom to work.

We want the liberty to get to our job.

And it's possible to win that, but we have to have organization.

ICE is an organization.

The government of Bay County is an organization.

So we are not going to be able to get what we want

unless we are an organization.

We won't be able to get anything alone.

If you agree strongly with this goal of building organization,

then I would invite you all to stand up.

How many houses, in total, did they not pay you for?

Four in total.

So, let's just understand what happened.

He said we needed to finish the job, and then they will pay.

- Hmm. - I didn't trust him already,

but I told my men to finish because we were stuck.

"Let's finish and see what happens."

We finished, and then the problems started.

What hurts the most is my workers suffered badly.

We are talking about $9,000 that I owe other people.

That is what hurts, that I owe the workers.

That's why we all need to tell Tommy what happened.

I took him to a lawyer we know to talk about his case.

When the lawyer saw Tommy's name,

he went to the back to talk to his colleagues. Remember?

And then he told us, "This man, Tommy, is untouchable."

It was already complicated because of who he is.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

He cannot be touched.

He can't be touched because he is a public figure.

It's important to understand who Tommy Hamm is.

They experienced him as the owner of the company,

but he's also a county commissioner.

I'm Tommy Hamm, and I approve this message.

My family has lived in Bay County for five generations.

I'm a husband, a father,

and I make my living as a custom home builder.

As a business owner, I must live within my means

and provide value to the homeowners that hire me

by doing things right and doing what I say I'll do.

I have sent him emails to his company.

I sent emails to his public email.

I copied his secretary.

Absolutely no response.

This is not an isolated incident.

We know of other workers that have worked under Winterfell

that have also been victims of wage theft.

Workers have come to us

and asked us to visit addresses.

That's why we came to you.

Where did you find the contractor? How did you hear about...

- Oh, the contractor? - Uh-huh.

It's Tommy Hamm in...

- Lynn Haven. He's a commissioner. - Yeah.

Unfortunately, there's many waves of workers

who are telling us that Tommy didn't pay.

They didn't get paid. They did not get paid.

I've had very good luck with all the workers, very good luck.

- Good. That's great. - Nothing bad to say about 'em.

Do you have their contact information?

Many workers were not paid by the same company.

We wanted to know,

are you one of the workers who haven't been paid?

Correct. That's right.

For how long... Actually, who did you work for?

Winterfell.

Winterfell, okay.

How long did you work for them?

Two months.

Two months. And in those two months, did they pay you?

No.

In two months, they did not pay you anything?

They gave me a fake check.

Hello.

And what intersection was this?

Okay, I have to let you go 'cause my phone is the hotline.

I just got a call right now

from somebody probably who was in front of ICE.

Signal. Boy, I tell y'all.

Something must be poppin' in the city.

Try to limit going out.

Also, if you can, buy the food you need and stay home

because we are getting reports that...

We have verified reports that ICE is stopping people at gas stations

or driving down the street.

Be careful.

You could hear the fear in her voice.

Be careful because we got a report

that ICE is doing operations around the state.

Be careful.

You don't have to talk with them. Take care.

What you got, brother?

Hey, what's going on?

We got three that came out of the target address.

All three in the country illegally.

We already got six right now.

- Six total already? Plus these? - Six right now. Yeah.

- That's awesome. - That's nine with Mr. Francis.

It's ICE?

Okay, can you hang up and just start recording?

This is them right now.

Excuse me, sir, but it is against North Carolina law

for you to stop in the middle of a roadway and obstruct traffic.

So you can either move your vehicle,

or I'll have the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police come out here and cite you.

- I can move the vehicle. - That's a great idea, sir.

Can you ask them to identify themselves?

They tell me I'm obstructing.

He wants to record, so let's wrap them up and get out of here.

Oh, okay.

That's them.

Hi, everybody. I'm here documenting

that we've received reports of people being detained...

as you can see.

You have the right to remain silent.

You don't have to speak with ICE.

Jeremy for Bob.

You don't have to sign any documents

and are entitled to a lawyer.

Do not give them your fingerprints,

and you have the right to speak to a lawyer.

The fact they can speak to you in Spanish doesn't mean you have to talk with them.

Hey, Bob, we got three in custody up here

at Sharon Amity Central.

We've got camera crews following us around.

We're getting ready to killer out of here.

And then we also have here...

two vehicles, also undercover.

All right, 10-4.

Don't go back to any more target addresses.

Be careful, folks.

"La Migra" is here, and we're going to follow them.

Follow them.

All right, 10-4. Be careful.

We don't know where they are taking them.

If anybody saw anything, let us know.

Hey, Bob, this is copy.

There's some Facebook live stuff going on.

All right, 10-4.

Billy, how's it going?

- Things are getting heated. - Okay.

- Hey, Dave, how are you? - What's up?

Hey, just an update.

There's a lot more attention today than yesterday.

We just ran into our first full-on camera crew,

and she's hollering in Spanish about attorneys and rights,

and we basically just got them into a vehicle as quick as we could

and cleared the area.

Okay, people, I'm at CVS on Central Avenue.

If anything happens, you know where I am.

You know what to do if I need help.

Now place your right arm on your head and don't move.

Camera! Camera, guys.

They are detaining a comrade.

They have a van where they are putting people.

Hey, is this an operation

- with ICE and the US Marshals? - Jeremy, Bob.

What type of operation is this?

- I can't tell you. - You can't tell me?

- Nope. - Well, you're undercover,

so we're just trying to make sure we know who's on our streets.

You are right now.

Well, I'm a resident of Mecklenburg County,

so I can be on the streets where I live.

Jeremy, Bob.

Obviously, they don't want us to know who they are.

We are trying to see where they are taking people.

They have two cars.

For those who are just joining us...

Oh, there's another one!

Fuck!

Fuck! They're blocking us. Do you see that?

They're blocking us right now from following them.

Yeah, they got a lot of Facebook video of us today.

Yeah.

- Good morning, sir? - How are you?

Till we get everybody on the box, we don't know what we have...

What about crim/non-crim or target vs. Non-target?

It's a high percentage of non-target.

We'll run a report later.

This town's gonna go on lockdown tomorrow

based off of all the Facebook stuff that's out there.

I mean, it's just...

New stuff keeps popping up every few seconds.

- Hmm, I didn't see this one yet. - What's going on?

Boy, there's a lot of new ones.

We're getting lots of reports that stuff's going on.

Are you guys doing an operation?

There's somebody arrested.

- He's not arrested. - Well, he has handcuffs.

He's in handcuffs for our safety. He's not under arrest.

He looks like a kid who's wearing sandals.

- He's not under arrest. - Okay.

What are y'all... Are y'all stopping a work van?

Go ahead and take...

You don't have to talk to them.

You have the right to remain silent and the right to a lawyer.

Back her up, man. He didn't even back her up.

I wanna make sure people know their rights.

I mean, it's really concerning what's going on right here.

Yeah, right?

There's unmarked vehicles right now

where people are being stopped.

Are y'all driving all throughout the city...

with unlicensed plates that don't have proper identification?

- Do you have... could I have a card, sir? - No.

No? You don't talk to people who reside here,

who wanna know what y'all are doing?

Do we have to?

Better get out there and talk to people. It's your fault.

It's a van with people inside.

Send us your reports.

Let's stay alert.

Oh, I'm a little shook.

I'll be honest. I was really scared right here.

You never know.

You never know.

Guide us, Father, so we can work in this city.

We thank those who accept us in their homes.

We thank those who give us food.

Thank you for the organizers

and for everyone of us who comes to work. We are tired, but we are here.

Amen.

¡Gracias!

There are about 20 workers that we are trying

to get to meet with Tommy.

I know more than 60.

Did you ever work directly for Tommy?

Yes, he was with us. He even directed us.

We even worked at his mother's house.

He even worked at their mom's house.

Have you worked out collectively how much does he owe you?

He owes me like $8,000 and change.

He owes us $6,000 each.

A lot of money.

What happened to you should never have happened to you.

Because we trusted them.

"Because we trusted them."

Yeah, and they betrayed your trust.

And we thought that in the United States, this would not happen.

I never imagined it.

I came from Venezuela, from a country with many conflicts.

But I was hopeful that I could work here and send money to my family back home.

And what I ended up going through is that they cheated us in a very big way.

- Even her knee was injured. - Yes.

"I even hurt my knee."

Their deceit was so strong.

There are a number of groups of workers

who have exactly your problem...

The story of Tommy Hamm and his company is so complicated.

And each time we got a new piece of the puzzle,

we realized how many pieces of the puzzle we didn't have.

And it turned out

that Anna, Joel and Emilio just held all these pieces to the puzzle.

They knew the layers and layers of the company.

They had amassed on their phone cameras all this evidence:

Payroll records and receipts and text messages.

Each worker up until then was holding a flashlight up

to the little corner of the company they understood.

And then Joel just turned the lights on.

This is supposedly where Winterfell started...

with Tommy.

He helped us understand the structure of the organization,

the people who were involved,

who was responsible for what and accountable to whom.

This is the company that we represented.

And I say "represented," because they made us wear company vests.

We identified as Winterfell employees to the folks we worked with.

But how did Tommy supervise you in that house?

He came and told us how he wanted things, what design he wanted.

Many times, we took advantage to tell him something was wrong.

- You would tell him? - Yes.

What would you tell him?

That we didn't have food, and we hadn't been paid.

He said he had nothing to do with it, and it was Tino's responsibility.

So he brings in these shell companies, subcontractors.

Tommy is blaming the shell companies.

The shell companies are blaming Tommy,

and in the middle, there's still no more money,

and they're not getting paid.

Tommy's a small businessman.

After a disaster, he quickly turns around and gets into empire building.

And he realizes the best way to do that is to use immigrant labor.

All the houses we worked at had a Winterfell sign,

all of us were immigrants.

All of us.

He's happy to use immigrant labor. He's happy to use it

until the immigrants themselves wanna hold him accountable.

I went to the police to file a report

about the bounced check from his company.

The first days, the police communicated with me.

The police officer called me.

He said he would investigate.

After a few weeks, he stopped calling me.

I would call him to try to reach him and nothing.

Tommy threatens immigration action against these workers.

He tells them that if health inspectors come,

then Immigration will come with them.

When you put all these pieces together,

it seemed like this was a company

whose business model was built on a pattern of abuse.

That environment of fear is actually by design.

On the surface, it started with four or five workers.

By the end, it was more than 100 workers.

That little wage theft case just kept getting bigger and bigger,

and those are exactly the kinds of deliberate fleecing of workers

that we want to try to expose and take apart.

So it seems like this is a pattern. What happened to you has happened before.

Tommy Hamm hasn't paid you.

That's why it's important that you all meet tonight and have a conversation.

So one option is we could go to his house.

For me, that's a good idea.

As the saying goes, "In numbers, there is strength."

We're just gonna have you rehearse the conversation with Tommy Hamm.

So, here he is. He opens the door.

Go ahead. What's going on?

Okay, well, we come here respectfully to have a conversation.

That we meet tonight and have a conversation.

What's he saying?

We came here with respect to have a conversation with you.

Okay, you got three minutes.

That's great. That's how we're gonna start.

And then when he asks, "Okay, fine, talk to me,"

you lay out your case.

Do you feel ready?

Do you feel ready?

- Okay, good, good. - Okay, all right.

Gather here, guys.

Is this everyone who's coming?

Daniel said that some of them are afraid to get out.

Afraid to get out?

Yeah, so he told the ones that weren't afraid to come.

Okay, yeah.

Okay, let's go.

Like an army!

Freddy, where is the house?

This way.

So the three of us need to be up here.

They need to come much closer to us.

What a beautiful home!

Did you work here as well, Freddy? Did you work here?

Here, no. I worked around the corner on the roof.

Three of us and three representatives will go up to the door.

Other folks should stay right here.

Okay, only we'll go,

and you stay on the street on public property.

Okay, we'll knock one last time.

He said he heard people talking.

There's somebody inside. There's somebody inside.

Yeah, there's somebody.

He is going to call the police.

Are we getting scared?

Yes.

Hey, Mr. Hamm, any chance you're home?

Hello.

I'm just afraid that if they call the police, you know...

- We should probably get going. - We'll give it a minute. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

How about we leave the letter and...

Yeah, we leave the letter and my business card.

Okay?

So, we saw him. He's in there.

They're already calling now.

So, we should get going. Okay?

Let's move. He may have called the police.

He was inside and didn't want to come out.

Let's drive in a caravan, all together.

- Tango? - Um, no.

- Where's he from? - El Salvador.

El Salvador? Good.

- We got his passport. - Perfect.

Good work, guys.

How many people have you confirmed that have been arrested by ICE?

At this point, I can't give you a count.

All I can say is we're being inundated by the amount of calls that we're getting.

It's very much of a rogue agency with little supervision,

and now, lots of involvement from our federal government.

Nobody else is talking. ICE is not talking.

I've gotten calls from organizers

who are like, "Holy fuck! We can't handle this,"

and they're calling national organizers to come.

So, it's gonna get weird.

Hundreds of immigration arrests in North Carolina,

pitting ICE agents against the sheriff's department.

I'm just wondering what the sheriff's gonna say.

That is my stance, not to have 287.

I know that we can be a better city without it.

I'm committed to what I'm doing, and I am in charge.

Hey, Cundy? Did you read Forsyth's canceling us?

Are they?

The sheriff of Forsyth County says

his jail will no longer allow US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

to house detainees there.

The sheriff says his office will never be an extension of Immigration Services.

ICE got mad. And what are they doing? They're terrorizing us.

They're going everywhere we go. They're there.

Because they wanna intimidate us,

because we voted to kick them out of Charlotte.

We will not be intimidated by ICE today or tomorrow or never.

ICE is partially blaming Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden

for the increased enforcement.

Bryan Cox mentioned that, if I did take this off the books,

this will cause more aggressive activity.

This is a sheriff who ran on "ICE is bad,"

and so, day one in office, suspended all cooperation.

So Mecklenburg County's policies have shut out ICE.

In today's world,

with more jurisdictions refusing to cooperate with us,

it has forced us to really get creative and rethink, "How are we gonna do this?"

ICE! Listen up!

We are here to fight!

ICE! Listen up! We are here to fight!

Sheriffs of Wake and Durham Counties announce

they will not take part in ICE operations.

Sheriffs in North Carolina are tight.

Once the wind blows, man, it just seems like everyone follows suit.

ICE out of Charlotte!

And remember, if you stand against us, we vote you out!

ICE out of Charlotte! ICE out of Charlotte!

ICE out of Charlotte! ICE out of Charlotte!

- Good to see you. - What's going on?

Oh, just another quiet day in ERO, right?

We almost had to force print somebody this morning.

- "You don't have the right to..." - Yeah, you can't take my fingerprints.

"I don't give you consent to handcuff me and place me under arrest."

What are we up to for the week now? We're at what?

At least 149.

- That's including today? - Not today.

So, I'm Bryan Cox with ICE, public affairs officer.

Anything of the sort

that these activist groups say that we're doing,

and in fact, they are spreading misinformation.

Look, these are not speeding, driving without a license.

These are people arrested locally on serious, violent felony charges.

So, we don't have official data, but I'm sure you've seen...

I mean, due to the media firestorm this week,

and there's so much misinformation.

All right, bye.

You know, I made clear to the reporter,

"Look, you take these little hyperbolic stories out of context."

Let me just give you our stats that 91% of everybody we arrested last year

had a conviction or an arrest.

Like, we're not doing any kind of thing indiscriminate.

Right now, I think...

according to unofficial stats, right now, we're at about a third crim.

That's what headquarters pulled this morning.

"We're planning to hold a brief news conference

tomorrow, Friday 10:30 a.m.,

where we'll provide preliminary stats for the week and also discuss the arrests."

That's vague enough.

The same stuff that I've been giving up until now,

about 90%, we don't do any kind of indiscriminate enforcement,

the field office arrest stats that 91% crim and are criminal arrests.

You're not gonna have that today.

- No, I've got that. - No, I mean for this op.

The local stats. Yeah, I know.

For this op, I mean, I think we're about...

30, 35%.

Oh, yeah, that's fine. I mean, just own it. Yeah, absolutely.

"Yes, we got we got non-criminals on this one,

but it's because of the way we were forced to do the arrests."

I think what you just said... Look, this isn't a one-off.

This is the new normal due to these policies.

We told you. What? You didn't believe us? You thought we were bluffing and whatnot?

Like, no.

The whole goal here is to get them to change their policy.

Put it back on them. So they go to the sheriff and say,

"Okay, what are you gonna do?"

We have requested an update from the Mecklenburg County Sheriff

regarding the status of US Immigration and Custom Enforcement activities

in Mecklenburg County.

First of all, the stats about undocumented immigration

making the rise of violent crimes is not true.

Let me be clear.

My focus is public safety

and strengthening the social fabric of our community

rather than tear apart families.

That's the work truly before us.

We elected you to be the chief law enforcement officer in this county.

ICE didn't appoint you.

The president didn't appoint you.

It's outrageous

that these federal employees are making any comments

about how you are performing your job, the job we elected you to do.

I believe it is totally out of order

for a federal agency to come in our community and to instill fear.

We support you.

All right!

Soon after we took workers to his house to request the payment of wages owed,

Tommy Hamm sent me this letter.

It says,

"Two weeks ago, I met with my attorney,

and I am in the process of attempting to obtain a restraining order against you

after you threatened the lives of my wife and children.

As your group surrounded my home in a loud, confrontational manner,

my wife and two young children were terrified

and thought they were going to be kidnapped and murdered.

Your criminal actions will force us to incur additional costs

to provide therapy for our children and relocate from our home.

I have retained an attorney

and am in the process of pursuing criminal and civil actions,

punitive and compensatory damages

against you, your associates and organization

"for your reckless, criminal actions."

"I have access to the entire state apparatus in my hands.

The laws of the state, the police force of the county,

the city jail, all of this works for me, and I can use it against you."

That's the message of this letter.

Tommy Hamm's attorney is requesting names and addresses

of these workers in this dispute.

And that's something that, you know...

is nerve-racking, because that's...

Once they have that information, they can certainly go after them.

They can target them on the street when they're driving,

when they're dropping their kids off at school, picking up groceries,

when they're looking for work at Home Depot.

You know, it basically puts a target on their back.

Tomorrow at the meeting,

we have at least four people that are gonna testify,

that are going to speak

and tell their stories to the commissioners.

You have a First Amendment right

to speak, to address a public meeting.

You have that right regardless of your status.

Everybody here is risking something. We want to be very clear about that.

This is already a place

where immigration raids and police action is happening against immigrants.

Now, there is a possibility

that commissioners will ask...

for your papers...

ask what your legal status is.

Okay? And you don't give an answer to that.

If the police is called,

Danielle, Cynthia and I will make a judgment call

about when or whether it is time to leave.

And if we need to, we'll leave.

Good morning, everyone. We're gonna go ahead

and call this regularly scheduled meeting of the Bay County Commission to order.

Let's pray.

We ask you today, Father, as we're approaching a day

in which our communities were so drastically devastated a year ago,

we ask for your strength that is needed

as we continue in our efforts of rebuilding and restoration.

- Amen. - Amen.

Public participation.

This is open to any issue related to County Commission Authority.

Please limit your remarks to three minutes.

Morning.

County Commissioner Griffitts and others, we'd like to tell you

about some of the work we're doing in your districts,

but also have a particular policy proposal

that falls well within your jurisdiction

that we'd like you to consider.

Wage theft and theft of service is an enormous hindrance

to the resilience and rebuilding of this part of the country.

Mr. Soni, obviously, we have a three-minute time limit.

Okay, yeah, and I'm stepping aside. You'll now hear from...

Yes, we'll make it quick.

- We understand it's all the same issue. - Yeah.

It's a set of issues, yeah.

Good morning. My name is Anna Salazar.

If the statement's already written,

if she has a written statement, could you just read it?

With her speaking Spanish and you translating, it drags out the time.

She'll be speaking for a minute and a half.

We'll stay within three minutes.

Excuse me,

but my pain makes me...

When we got here,

we started working with a company called...

Winterfell.

Winterfell.

Where we worked for three consecutive months.

And you, Mr. Tommy,

knew the situation that was happening in Winterfell.

That more than 60 workers who represented your company

were never compensated.

It's been six months,

and we still haven't received the money that we rightfully earned.

Yes, ma'am. Okay. I'm gonna stop you right now.

This sounds like you're getting into a personal issue with an individual.

We are not gonna stand here and have you attack individuals like this.

We're not attacking individuals.

When you hold up an individual's name on a safety vest like that,

you absolutely are.

The elephant in the room here, of course, is immigration.

We're gonna talk about county issues,

not individuals or businesses. Understood?

That being said, meeting adjourned.

Our goal is to win, and people fight to win,

but people also fight just to be recognized as human beings.

That sense that, "Somebody sees me, that I exist,"

that's something that is a victory of its own.

We need to be building more than just homes.

That's right!

We're part of Bay County now.

So I would like to ask you

what commitments we are willing to make to each other.

And I'll start.

I commit to all of you, on behalf of our team,

to start defending people in the jail from ICE.

Let's have another commitment. Who's next?

Invite friends to come and make the group bigger.

Very good! Okay, one more!

Need to unite more, because our voices need to be heard.

I was there for Katrina, and Isaac, I was here.

I also went to Houston.

I think we have to do the same here.

Remember, here there are no Guatemalans, Salvadorans or Hondurans.

We all came here to unite, and we are all brothers.

We want to ask you today: Who's ready to join us?

Say the words!

We are here to build!

Here to build!

Fuck ICE!

What are you... He's adding some stuff. Good.

- Okay, whatever makes him comfortable. - Yeah, he's making some notes.

That is fantastic. He nails it. Right between the eyes.

This is what's up. I would leave it at that.

Because the more questions he takes, the more chance to get off-topic

and in the weeds about all sorts of irrelevant other things.

So, we're here today because ICE...

is terrorizing our neighbors, not only here in Mecklenburg County

but across the state.

Right now we have Field Office Director Sean Gallagher...

He's a Nazi!

Telling lies about our community...

Fuck Sean Gallagher!

Trying to pretend his agents aren't committing civil rights violations

on the ground,

as they're watching us here, laughing. You know what's going on...

Univision is here. Fox... four TV... Yeah, you got four TV stations here.

You know me. I used to be a news guy. Huge believer in journalism,

but we have a couple who are looking to do a gotcha.

They don't want to report the reality.

So if we let them corner,

they're gonna try to make all this other stuff up.

Hey, I took the liberty of looking through. I think you nailed it.

The way you personalized it, I think they're fantastic.

I just wanna add something here.

You know this stuff cold. I've seen you do it.

You're gonna be fine. I mean, your remarks are seriously rock star.

Not blowing smoke up your ass. I think this is great.

Okay.

Uh... you're the FOD. Obviously, you can do what you want,

but we want you to be the guy who's on camera,

- kind of hitting them between the eyes. - That's fine.

All right, you guys ready?

All right, folks, y'all ready?

Over the last few days,

our officers conducted a large-scale enforcement operation

resulting in approximately 200 arrests across the state.

We believe it was a successful operation.

We don't have the final statistics as of yet,

but of the 200 people that were arrested,

50 of those individuals had criminal convictions.

Forty have pending criminal charges.

Fifty were ICE fugitives, which are individuals

who were ordered removed from the United States

by an immigration judge but have failed to depart.

And then 60 other individuals who were arrested

after it was found out by our ICE officers during that target enforcement

that they were illegally in the country.

Any further follow-up questions my staff can handle. I apologize.

You are not going to stay for any questions?

A lot of the opponents of this also just charge

that, simply, you don't have empathy.

You're doing your job, enforcing the law,

but you're not looking at these individual cases.

Do your officers...

Are they allowed to have empathy? Should they have empathy?

How should they do this, balancing that threat to national security

versus someone who maybe was just going to work to support a family?

I think that the uptick that you've seen is,

again, a direct result of some of the dangerous policies

that some of our county sheriffs have put into place.

And it really...

forces my officers to go out on the street

to conduct more enforcement operations out in the community,

at courthouses, at residences, doing traffic stops.

Now, you will have to do some traffic stops,

but earlier in the statement, you said you don't make indiscriminate arrests.

So are you making traffic stops, or are you not making traffic stops?

We are targeting, and the data are clear,

91% of the people that we arrested were somehow either criminally convicted

or criminally charged.

We are not gonna turn a blind eye to enforcement.

If there happens to be people that are illegally in this country,

my officers have the discretion

whether or not to take an enforcement action against them.

- You mentioned wrong place... - I'll take the follow-ups. Thank you.

There are a number of individuals, ma'am, that already had criminal convictions.

Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Alfieri has got to go!

Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Alfieri has got to go!

Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Alfieri has got to go!

What am I supposed to do?

I said, "We arrested over 200 people this week,

and when we're done, it'll be closer to 300."

- But at the end of the day, man... - At the end of the day...

- that's what we're gonna do. - Yeah.

Dude, done.

Living their daily lives, they're concerned...

Seriously?

About what this means, but again, that phrase, "A new normal,"

is something that was mentioned multiple times today,

and they're saying that is in response to new sheriff's policies on 287.

They are now going out into the community.

They're telling people to expect an increased presence for ICE.

For now, reporting live in Charlotte, Anne Marie Hagerty,

WBTV News, on your side.

Fantastic. That's the message. Hey!

I like it.

I like how I can see her outside talking.

- Exactly. - Perfect.

- Well done. - That's exactly what we said.

- All right, perfect. I'm hungry. - We going to lunch?

Yeah, let's go to the steakhouse.

"Raids like this will continue

after several local law enforcement agencies stopped cooperating with ICE."

- There you go. - We're doing it because we were forced.

But they said "raids." We didn't say "raids."

- Whatever. That's fine. - ICE didn't say "raids."

We're never gonna win that battle.

But the fact that, "Hey, we're doing it because we were forced to."

We had no choice. Local policies...

- forced our hands." - We did not say "raids."