Posted on November 11, 2020

New ICE Billboards on Charlotte Interstates Warn of Dangerous Immigration Violators

Joe Marusak, Charlotte Observer, November 9, 2020

Billboards are popping up along interstates in Charlotte with photos of local criminal suspects and offenders wanted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The federal agency announced the billboard campaign in a news release Friday night, in which ICE blames local ”sanctuary policies” for the men’s release.

“Too often sanctuary policies limiting cooperation with ICE result in significant public safety concerns because they release dangerous individuals back into the community we are attempting to protect,” ICE official Tony Pham said in the release.

ICE called the local suspects and offenders “at-large” and “dangerous.”

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The campaign appears to involve a more than two-year-long feud between ICE and Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden, although ICE did not name the sheriff in its billboard campaign.

Last year, a senior ICE official blasted what he called McFadden’s “dangerous and reckless” policy of allowing undocumented immigrants charged with crimes to walk out of jail with no call to ICE, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.

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