On Saturday, August 1, in the midday heat, dozens of people gathered in front of the Hudson United Methodist Church, in Caldwell County, for a vigil for the 13 people arrested a week earlier in Wilson Creek.
Pastors and local religious leaders led the prayers alongside relatives of the detainees, organizers, and residents of the region.
Several attendees held signs. One read, “Swimming is not a crime.” Another quoted a Bible verse: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
Several people also shared slogans like "the river belongs to everyone." There were prayers, songs, and testimonies from relatives of those detained.
Caravan to Wilson Creek
Afterwards, the attendees formed a caravan of about 20 cars that traveled to Wilson Creek, in the Pisgah National Forest.
The attendees parked and went down the stairs to one of the most popular areas of the river, where many of the people arrested were spending the Sunday of the operation with their families.
Shortly after, with sheriff's deputies present, the organizers decided that everyone should leave earlier than planned, in order to protect the community.
Later, back in Hudson, Siembra NC offered a "know your rights" workshop, with information on how to act in the event of a immigration control and about the alert system it uses to monitor the presence of agents.
The vigil and caravan held in Wilson Creek are part of the community's response to the ICE operation. Learn more about this ELNC coverage:
ICE operation denounced in Wilson Creek, a popular recreation area in western North Carolina
ICE confirms operation in Wilson Creek: 13 people were arrested
Operations in national forests: what is known about other cases in the country
“My nephew is not a criminal”
Wendy Rosales is the aunt of Argenis Eduardo Torres Rosales, one of those arrested on July 26 in Wilson Creek. She recounted that her nephew arrived at the river around 11 a.m. that day and encountered the checkpoint at the only entrance.
“The sheriff stopped him and asked for his license, he asked for his registration. My nephew gave it to him,” Rosales told Enlace Latino NC .
“His license is valid until 2030. His registration was up to date, his insurance was up to date, everything in that part of his car was up to date,” he said.
According to his account, they checked his documentation And then they called the federal agents.
“They just told him he didn’t have legal status in the country and put him in the van“,” he said.
His nephew remained at the scene until about five in the afternoon, when he was transferred to Charlotte.
Rosales explained that Argenis is in a asylum process along with his family and who entered the country with a humanitarian leave in 2023.
“He did not enter this country illegally. At the time, that was a valid rule, and he entered that way,” he said.
He obtained a work permit and, according to his aunt, has paid taxes since his arrival.
“We are hard-working people who have come here to work and do things right,” Rosales said.
“My nephew is not a criminal. What they are saying is a lie. Not all Latinos are criminals,” he added.
A place to enjoy your days off
Rosales was one of the relatives of detainees who participated in Saturday's vigil in Hudson.
She said that Argenis, who was from Hickory like her, had discovered Wilson Creek about four months earlier and liked the place so much that he often went there on his days off. That Sunday was one of those days.
At the time of the interview, he mentioned that he had managed to speak with his nephew and that he was doing well.
According to his account, in the detention center They took him to a nursing station, where they left him for three hours without attending to him.
Rosales commented that he asked her to cover her mouth because of the diseases that, he says, are circulating in the area.
Wilson Creek has almost no Latino families
When the caravan reached Wilson Creek, they found a different river. Hardly anyone was in the water.
Plenty of space to park the more than 20 cars that were part of the vigil.
In the same area where just a week earlier a family summer Sunday ended in arrests, fear and families hiding in the woods until nightfall, that Saturday there was almost no one.
Sandra Salazar, a community leader in Morganton, participated in a community verification process in the area following the operation. What she found shocked her.
“There wasn’t a single Hispanic or brown person in the area, and it made me very sad,” she mentioned. Enlace Latino NC “This is not the country I came to 31 years ago,” he said.
For Salazar, Wilson Creek is not just any place.
“It’s a little piece that reminds us of our country: the mountains, the rivers, nature,” he commented.
She also recalled that it is the river to which her mother used to take her as a child, and to which she now takes the participants of another group she is part of. Adventurous Latinos.
“It’s a place where we felt free to go and spend time in community. We feel invaded, because now we don’t have the same confidence to return,” she stated.
She said her children asked her if they would be able to return. “I told them I don’t know, because I’m afraid for you and I’m afraid for myself.”
No criminal record
Authorities presented the operation as an action against dangerous individuals. The verification of Siembra NC And the testimonies from the vigil tell a different story.
The organization reviewed the backgrounds of four of the 13 people arrested, using state and federal records. “None of them had a criminal record,” Andreina Malki, an organizer with Siembra NC, told Enlace Latino NC .
Two of those people had a pending residency process; at least one, an open asylum case, with a valid work permit and driver's license.
“We don’t understand the story that they were taking away criminals,” Malki said. “At least four of those people don’t fit the description, and we suspect many others don’t either.”
You may be interested: Are you going to court in North Carolina and need an interpreter? A work stoppage could delay your case.
“Indiscriminate raid”
ICE had maintained that several detainees had criminal records, including cases of re-entry into the country.
Malki responded that the people his organization reviewed did not even have those charges, and that re-entry is not, in itself, a serious crime.
Methodist pastor Adam Love spoke at the vigil. He said the officers chose a secluded, low-visibility location and questioned those who “didn’t look like they were from the area, which often means not being white.”
“The 13 people were arrested not because any of them had a criminal record, but because it was an indiscriminate raid carried out by federal agents with an agenda,” Love said.
Love described one of the detainees: a 27-year-old construction worker, the sole legal guardian of her younger sisters. They took him out of the car while the young women watched from the back seat.
The pastor also recounted the case of a teenager who called Siembra NC's community hotline when both her parents were arrested. "They took my mother away in a swimsuit and flip-flops, and we had to bring her clothes to the Charlotte office," he said, describing what the teenager told him.
“For me and others who grew up in North Carolina, this is an outrageous invasion of personal freedom,” Love said.
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