People are sleeping outside Charlotte ICE office overnight because of long waits
This story was produced in partnership between Enlace Latino NC and The Charlotte Observer. Read the story in Spanish here.
Even as overnight temperatures hung in the 20s and 30s, immigrants desperate to make appointments at Charlotte’s Department of Homeland Security office slept outside the building in recent weeks.
“We’ve already been waiting two nights, since 7:00 p.m. on Monday,” said one woman on the morning of Jan. 21, who identified herself as María Cristina. “Thank God we are close now, and God willing, we’ll make it in today.”
Originally from the Mexican port city of Veracruz, she has been seeking asylum for three years, she said. If she did not show up for an annual appointment, she worried she might “lose the entire process.”
Wrapped in blankets, bundled in multiple coats, and sometimes with camping chairs, many in line told Enlace Latino NC and The Charlotte Observer that they, too, waited days to get inside. On top of that, they’re worried that they could be detained for showing up for the routine appointments.
A Cuban man who identified himself as Reynaldo said that when people needed to use the restroom or get something to eat, they went to a gas station close to the office on Tyvola Centre Drive.
On a freezing morning Jan. 21, around 200 people were waiting in line. A woman near the entrance said that officials were allowing about 30 people to enter at a time. “Sixty have already gone in; hopefully, they will allow more people inside,” she said.
They came from everywhere, from Cuba to Russia, and today live in places as far away as Henderson, north of Raleigh, near the Virginia border.
Spokespeople for DHS did not respond to questions from the Observer and Enlace Latino NC about the wait, which many people in line reported to be much longer than in past years.
One federal agent stationed at the parking lot’s entrance told reporters that the hours of operation had changed.
“It is now open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.,” the agent said.
Marco Ruiz of Kannapolis, who waited in line with his wife about two weeks ago so she could make her asylum appointment, noticed that many parents had to bring their children.
“It’s very inhumane because there’s no alternative,” Ruiz said of the circumstances in a phone interview. “You can’t reschedule your appointment. If you don’t get in within, like, a week, you basically miss your appointment, and you’re subject to deportation.”
Many are afraid as they wait
For some, the decision to show up was nerve-wracking.
“It really is frightening to be here, but we do everything so we can be OK in this country,” a woman from Colombia named Melissa said as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stood nearby.
ICE falls under DHS. Its agents work out of the office .
Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, the city, North Carolina’s largest and most diverse, has been a hotspot for immigration enforcement. ICE agents have arrested people near a magnet school, outside the Mecklenburg County courthouse and at immigration court. Parents, community advocates and attorneys criticized those arrests, and said they violated basic principles of decency and due process.
In November, U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested hundreds of people across the city in an operation dubbed “Charlotte’s Web.” DHS provided conflicting arrest numbers, would not release most of the names of people arrested and did not say whether most of them had criminal records.
Masked, armed agents in military fatigues charged into a grocery store’s self-checkout area, parking lots and a church’s yard. They were especially active in neighborhoods adjacent to the South Boulevard corridor and east Charlotte, both areas home to much of the city’s immigrant population.
Melissa lives in Charlotte, she said.
“This year I feel much more afraid than the first time I came,” she said. “I’m very scared of what might happen inside. But I’m trusting God that everything will go well.”
She heard stories of people showing up for their appointments and being arrested once inside, she said. Others reported that happening at the office late last year.
A woman from Peru, Laura, heard similar stories. Laura said she got fired after missing work; she needed to make her DHS check-in appointment. Even after that effort, she felt afraid waiting in line.
“Some people go in and don’t come back out. It seems like they’re being detained inside, but we don’t know why,” she said.
She did not want to be arrested and separated from her two young children, she said.
The Observer and Enlace Latino NC asked DHS and ICE spokespeople if people who adhere to the rules and show up for appointments in Charlotte are being arrested. No one responded.
People in line organize themselves
Ruiz, the man who stood in line with his wife during the week of Jan. 12, said a family member to someone else in the line put together a waitlist.
It brought some much-needed structure, he said.
“Thank God, a lady on Tuesday, when we got there, she started to make a waiting list… That’s kind of how we were able to get in line, because she kind of organized everybody… She went through, one by one, getting their names and everything.”
More than 100 people were able to get inside on that Tuesday, Jan. 13, he said, which was far more than usual. He said he kept track of the list the next day, then passed it on to someone else.
“The security that’s in there actually kind of likes that list because it’s more organized,” he said.
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 January 27, 2026 at 5:00 AM.