‘Where’s my dad?’ girls ask after ICE arrests man outside Charlotte health office
Unable to drive herself because of a high-risk pregnancy, Kimberlin Lemus said she had already missed her appointment with the Mecklenburg County health department weeks before.
So on the week of March 9, her husband, Elmer Flores, took off work to get her there and to other appointments, she said in a phone interview with The Charlotte Observer. A staffer at Siembra NC, an advocacy group helping Lemus, translated her answers in the interview.
Lemus said her husband dropped their two daughters off at school before taking her to the Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Food Program office on Beatties Ford Road, which provides nutrition support to pregnant women.
With the appointment set for 9 a.m., he dropped her off at the entrance three minutes early, she said, then looked for parking.
Nothing seemed suspicious. But when she checked in at the front desk, her phone rang.
“Hey, love,” she remembered her husband saying before a voice cut in and told him to get out of the car.
“Yes, one second. I’ll get out of the car, officer. I’m talking to my wife,” was the last thing she heard Flores say on the phone, she said.
She believed the people she heard in the background were police officers and started to go outside, but employees in the county government office warned her that it was Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she said. They locked the doors and took her and others who were afraid to a back room, she said.
At some point, she said, one of the workers brought her car keys to her.
Family struggles with father in jail
Today, Flores, 27, is in a detention facility in Georgia, his wife said.
Originally from Honduras, the family had been living in Charlotte for about seven months, she said, but Flores was not in any process to get legal residency or citizenship. He has no criminal record, according to his family.
Lemus has spoken to him while he is in jail, but only in five-minute intervals because that’s all the time she is allowed on the phone with him without depositing more money, she said.
He installs fiber optic internet and is the family’s breadwinner, she said. That has left her struggling to know what to do while he is in jail. She has asked for money on GoFundMe. But larger questions about their future loom.
“What I want is to speak with a lawyer to see if they can support me in getting him out… so we can fight the case,” she said.
The issue is the same one she is dealing with more immediately: money. Siembra helped her pay a month’s rent, and she is now using the GoFundMe money on food, she said.
The couple’s daughters, five-year-old Camila and nine-year-old Yaritza, are struggling without their father, Lemus said.
“The girls are constantly asking, ‘Where’s my dad? Where’s my dad’” she said. “They want to see him. Honestly, me too. I have experienced anxiety and depression in the past, in my life, and I think it’s coming back. I can’t really sleep at night. I just think about the situation.”
Throughout her pregnancy, he has been her rock, she said.
Siembra condemned the arrest.
“These cases are deeply concerning because people are being detained at places where they go to support their families,” said Defense Manager Andreina Malki in a statement. “ Our leaders must declare these essential service sites off-limits for immigration enforcement. No one should have to choose between feeding their child and losing their freedom.”
Mecklenburg County says little about incident
It’s unclear why ICE was at the county health office, or how often agents are there.
The Observer asked ICE for more information about the arrest but received no response as of late Wednesday afternoon.
It’s also unclear if Mecklenburg County government leaders support the ICE presence at their office or not.
“Mecklenburg County has information that authorities were present in the parking lot of one of our County facilities,” county public health spokesperson Myles Bell said in an email. “We have no comment on their activities. Our priority remains the health, safety, and overall well-being of our clients, staff, and the community we serve.”
Bell and other spokespeople did not answer whether the county had been in contact with ICE since Flores’ arrest, did not answer whether county leaders have given guidance to county employees, and did not say why they had not notified the public about the presence of ICE at a county facility.
Other Mecklenburg County officials have announced ICE arrests that happened in public places. Multiple times, Sheriff Garry McFadden has let the public know when agents arrested people at or near the county courthouse, which his agency oversees.
Still, many local officials in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County have been largely silent during the year-plus of public arrests by ICE in the area, as well as a controversial, weeklong U.S. Border Patrol operation.
Do you have information about ICE in Mecklenburg County or North Carolina? Contact reporter Ryan Oehrli at 980-451-0108 or roehrli@charlotteobserver.com.
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 April 1, 2026 at 10:00 AM.