Protest planned in uptown Charlotte after fatal ICE shootings in Houston, Maine
Immigrations protests are scheduled to return to uptown Charlotte on Saturday.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is hosting their National Day of Action protests in Charlotte at Romare Bearden Park at 2 p.m. The National Day of Action comes after Immigration and Customs Enforcement fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo from Houston and Joan Sebastian Guerrero from Maine, which have led to mass protests in both Texas and Maine.
The shootings also follow 10 different shootings involving ICE agents 2026, including the fatal shootings of Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this year.
“We understand what’s happening in Houston and what’s happening in Maine also impacts us here in Charlotte,” said Dana Alhasan, an organizer with PSL. “We have seen a lot of ICE activity in Charlotte, as well as different immigrants and neighbors being attacked by ICE agents and border patrol. This is not an isolated issue.”
In Charlotte, the National Day of Action is the latest number of protest that have occurred against DHS. Last year during Operation Charlotte’s Web, people protested multiple times throughout the operation, including the prominent November 21 protest at Manolo’s Bakery on Central Avenue.
Organizers say the protest planned Saturday aims to give a message to the rest of the country that immigration operations have overstepped their constitutional bounds. The only option to prevent more shootings is to abolish ICE, organizers say.
“ICE is an agency that’s sole purpose is to terrorize immigrants and to function as a private police force for the president,” said Jeffery Shen, an organizer with PSL. “I’m older than ICE. ICE doesn’t need to exist.”
PSL organizers say they want protests to continue as consistent resistances against DHS.
“The most important thing to actually fight back against ICE terror and to defend immigrants in our community is to continuously mobilize and organize similar to what we saw in January in Minneapolis,” said Shen, “Hundreds shut down the city and defeated Bovino and Trump, and we need to continue mobilizing and organizing to do the same in Charlotte.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about the protest or any planned road closures.
