The leader of the Asheville, North Carolina, affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA) was among those attacking United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations during a Monday press conference demanding that the city ban the agency from its property.
ICE arrested 81 illegal immigrants in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the start of operation “Charlotte’s Web,” in the latest operation to enforce immigration laws. Left-wing pastors, teachers’ union leaders and a left-wing candidate for mayor of Asheville all demanded action during the press conference streamed by the Buncombe County Association of Educators to ban ICE from city property, similar to an order issued by Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago.
“We appreciate the public statements that many of our local and state leaders have made in response to this recent deployment,” Asheville City Association of Educators (ACAE) President Carson Bridges said during the event at the Land of Sky United Church of Christ, which had a “Black Lives Matter” banner hanging prominently. “But statements alone don’t keep children safe. Policies do, resolutions do, action does.”
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Asheville Councilwoman Kim Roney discussed the anti-ICE resolution she was pressing the council to vote on during the press conference, accusing the agency of “violating constitutional rights of residents” and claiming the immigration enforcement was “gross federal overreach.”
“Immigration enforcement is not a criminal matter, it’s a civil one,” Roney, who announced a run for mayor of Asheville in September, claimed. “There are actions, more than statements, that local elected officials can do to keep our communities safe.”
“We are not dangerous criminals,” the Rev. Claudia Jimenez, Minister of Faith Formation at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville, who addressed the media after Roney, claimed. “We are not violent. We are your neighbors… How many of you had immigrant siblings take care of your roofs after [Hurricane] Helene? How many of you have immigrant siblings whose businesses you support and that support you? How many of you have immigrant siblings that clean your clothes and serve the yummy food that Asheville is known for?”
Among those arrested during the initial portions of “Charlotte’s Web” were members of the El Salvadoran prison gang MS-13, which President Donald Trump designated as a foreign terrorist organization hours after taking office on Jan. 20, as well as illegal immigrants with DWI convictions and convictions for assault and larceny, according to a Department of Homeland Security release.
ICE agents have been fired at during operations in Illinois and California. The Department of Homeland Security issued a release Tuesday detailing the increase in ramming attacks targeting federal agents involved in immigration enforcement.
Two illegal immigrants were killed during a shooting at the ICE office in Dallas on Sept. 24, with the gunman taking his own life. Since July 4, there were at least two previous incidents in Texas where shots were fired at ICE or Border Patrol facilities, with ten people being charged with attempted murder in connection with the ambush on the ICE detention facility.
Death threats targeting ICE agents have increased by 8,000%, the Department of Homeland Security said in a Oct.30 release. Assaults on ICE agents are up 1,000% year-over-year, the agency reported in a September 22 release.
Bridges, Roney and Jimenez did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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