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, ill*gal."
That's it. That's all I need to know.
Crossed the border, he's ill*gal.
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, "ill*gal or legal?"
And they go, "ill*gal."
- 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, b*tch, 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 ill*gal 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 ill*gal,
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?
"sh**t 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 k*ller 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!
f*ck!
f*ck! 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 f*ck! 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 m*rder*d.
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!
f*ck 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 n*zi!
Telling lies about our community
f*ck 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 a*s.
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! h*, h*! Alfieri has got to go!
Hey, hey! h*, h*! Alfieri has got to go!
Hey, hey! h*, h*! 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."
Welcome to our World! Where we serve you cookies to ensure you get the best viewing experience on our site.
Did you know that you can remove censorship board-wide, use our advanced search functions, be notified when new content is posted, join our memberships, set episodes to show in any order you want & more if you are logged into your account?
Register or sign in here: ucp.php?mode=register
Did you know that you can remove censorship board-wide, use our advanced search functions, be notified when new content is posted, join our memberships, set episodes to show in any order you want & more if you are logged into your account?
Register or sign in here: ucp.php?mode=register
01x04 - The New Normal
Watch/Buy Amazon
A documentary looking inside the world of immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
A documentary looking inside the world of immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.