NBC’s immigration roundup from Charlotte, North Carolina is notable for what it shows, and what it doesn’t show. The report by Julia Ainsley cobbles together several victim stories and, most notably, promotes an ICE-spotting seminar at a local church.
Watch the report in its entirety below, as aired on NBC Nightly News on Wednesday, November 19th, 2025:
TOM LLAMAS: Okay, now to the Trump administration ramping up its immigration crackdown in Charlotte, where we're about to show you some dramatic video showing people running from federal agents. Border Patrol now says it's arrested more than 250 people there. Julia Ainsley reports tonight from Charlotte.
JULIA AINSLEY: Tonight, chaotic scenes like this playing out across Charlotte. This surveillance video capturing people fleeing a laundromat as federal agents arrived. A man texted his family this video shot inside a Border Patrol van to let them know he'd been detained. Another man wrestled to the ground inside a fast food restaurant under construction. Border Patrol says it has arrested more than 250 people five days into its immigration crackdown here.
WITNESS: He’s breaking the window. He's got an assault rifle pointed at her.
AINSLEY: It's unclear how many of those people have criminal records. This woman, a legal permanent resident, said she was questioned by Border Patrol and asked for her papers at the bank.
The target was to go after criminals, and they are not doing that. They are after good people. (VIDEO SWIPE) My legs were shaking, and I had documents, she tells us. Many in Charlotte’s Hispanic community say they're scared to leave their homes.
ERIKA REYNOSA: People are just staying home- even to do groceries. (VIDEO SWIPE) They're locked in for their own safety.
AINSLEY: One man at her church says he's afraid to leave his home for life-saving kidney dialysis, she tells us. Some North Carolinians welcoming the enforcement. Renee White drove more than two hours to show her support for immigration agents.
RENEE WHITE: I was able to pick up a couple dozen donuts and some coffee and to let them know that I supported them. (VIDEO SWIPE) I totally support what they're doing in Charlotte.
AINSLEY: Is this what you voted for?
WHITE: Yup. I voted for it in 2016. I voted for it in 2020, and I voted for it in 2024.
AINSLEY: More than 1000 people have signed up to come to this church tonight to learn how they can help immigrants spot Border Patrol in their community. Tom?
LLAMAS: Okay, Julia, thank you.
The truth is that immigration enforcement is always going to be messy, especially when the aforementioned enforcement carried out comes on the heels of the President of the United States cracking the border wide open and allowing tens of millions of unvetted illegal aliens to enter into the country. Thus it is that scenes of illegal aliens attempting to avoid capture and subsequent deportation are depicted as some sort of atrocity.
This type of reporting is not that different to what you normally see at such outlets as Univision or Telemundo. Immigration advocacy reporting. The difference between between those reports and this one is basic motivation. Whereas the Latino legacy networks do immigration advocacy because it is their business model, the same type of reporting on English-language media is predicated on resistance to Trump.
This explains what you see at the very end of the report: correspondent Julia Ainsley gleefully promoting a local church hosting an ICE detection seminar. Contrary to what Ainsley posits, the training is a little more involved than just learning how to “spot Border Patrol.” Per WBTV:
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Community organizations are training volunteers to monitor federal immigration enforcement activities as operation “Charlotte’s Web” enters its third day in the Charlotte area.
Dilworth United Methodist Church was packed Monday night for ICE and Border Patrol Watch training hosted by Siembra N.C. The session taught attendees how to observe and document immigration enforcement activities in their neighborhoods.
The training included hands-on exercises where volunteers acted out detention scenarios while watch team members practiced recording the interactions, alerting the public to immigration enforcement presence, and instructing detained individuals to identify themselves.
The article goes on to explain that trainees learn to help immigrants “get to school safely.” Siembra N.C. is a far-leftist group of unclear funding that promotes far-left causes in North Carolina. A quick perusal of their website also finds them to be anti-law enforcement and anti-capital. This is in addition to their non-ironic use of such terms as “Latine” and “Latinx.”
Subversion through open borders and obstruction of border enforcement is the end game here. Ultimately, that’s what this report was promoting.
