With Border Patrol in the city, Charlotte speaks out — loudly

For much of the year, protesters with the liberal group Indivisible Charlotte have been meeting on the Hawthorne Lane bridge that overlooks Independence Boulevard, holding up anti-Trump signs and waiting for a reaction.

On Tuesday, they got a big one.

For much of the hour or so that protesters held signs with sayings like “Crush ICE” and “Due Process for All,” drivers below laid down on their cars’ horns and did not let go for some time. It was louder than usual.

Indivisible Charlotte Mobilization Director Christa Lineberger said the group is seeing more interest from volunteers, too, since masked U.S. Border Patrol agents started arresting people in the Queen City on Saturday.

“Our Plaza Midwood pop-up on Sunday, that normally has about 25 people. We had 103,” she said.

Another pop-up protest on Monroe Road drew in 60. Normally, there might be eight or so, Lineberger said.

“We’re definitely seeing a groundswell of support,” she said.

People want to do something after feeling hopeless, she said, and are relieved when they find others who are speaking out.

“We’re predominantly white, as you can see,” Lineberger said of Indivisible. “So we know it’s a lot safer for us to be out here versus our Latino neighbors and our people of color that are our neighbors. We know it’s not as safe for them to be out there. But they sure cheer for us from their cars.”

The Department of Homeland Security says agents have arrested 250 people in Charlotte. DHS has named only a fraction of them. Masked agents have approached people at public places like shopping centers, big box store parking lots and a church.

‘The rainbow’s here’

On Tuesday, a small group outside Manolo’s Bakery grew to a sizable crowd.

The bakery has become a sort of symbol for Charlotte’s resistance to the federal government since its owner, Manuel “Manolo” Betancur, said he would need to close shop for the first time in nearly 30 years. There was too much risk for those in the local Latino community, he said, for him to stay open.

He still does not know when he will reopen, he told The Charlotte Observer on Tuesday afternoon.

But throughout the week, by day and night, protesters have kept his parking lot busy.

Betancur went between watching the crowd that had assembled and milling about inside his business. He did not know how they got there, he said, and he was still buzzing from the protest the night before.

“The rainbow’s here in east Charlotte, and we love each other and we support each other,” he said of the area’s diversity. “They make us feel safer, man, behind all these people here and all this attention. I think what happened last night was so powerful. It was a powerful protest, and to me it was more like a party.”

The party continued on Tuesday, when two women were dressed as the Statue of Liberty. Someone else wore a pink dinosaur costume. A speaker played everything from Gloria Gaynor’s classic “I Will Survive” to Bad Bunny.

Kirsten Sikkelee was one of the anti-Border Patrol demonstrators outside Manolo’s on Tuesday.

She said she was disturbed when federal police pulled over a woman and a child right near her house in Plaza Midwood, then smashed the woman’s car’s windows.

Sikkelee, who said she was not with a particular group and was just a “neighbor,” said she considered Border Patrol’s actions racial profiling and “domestic terrorism.”

What drew out one protester

“I think that, frankly, a lot of people were dubious that Charlotte would show up and stand with, and I think that people have been pleasantly surprised,” Sikkelee said. “And there’s certainly activists who’ve been far more engaged than we are, that are exhausted today, who’ve really been on the front lines.”

While cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland are known to love a good protest, Charlotte’s reputation is milder. Even in elections, Mecklenburg County often has among the lowest voter turnout in North Carolina.

It’s a town known for banks and suburbs. Its mayor is a moderate who likes to build consensus, as is its governor.

But Charlotte is also diverse, and neighbors tend to look out for each other.

Another woman outside Manolo’s on Tuesday, Rachel Smith, was ready to follow federal agents in her car and “harass them for harassing our people,” she said. That happened after agents went to her friend Miguel’s neighborhood, she said.

She saw the protest on the way and decided to join that instead.

“Growing up, it’s always been very obvious that this is the melting pot,” she said. “This is as much of a melting pot as all of America.”

She felt she should stand up for her Latino friends. After all, she remembered that they did the same for her.

“I feel like it’s my time to stand up for them, the way they stood up for us when Black people were under attack a few years ago when we were protesting in the streets about equality,” said Smith, who is Black.

Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.

This story was originally published November 20, 2025 at 5:00 AM.

Ryan Oehrli

The Charlotte Observer

Ryan Oehrli writes about criminal justice for The Charlotte Observer. His reporting has delved into police misconduct, jail and prison deaths, the state’s pardon system and more. He was also part of a team of Pulitzer finalists who covered Hurricane Helene. A North Carolina native, he grew up in Beaufort County.