The South has seen masked kidnappers before

The Living South was created by journalist Billy Ball in 2025. Every Tuesday, Billy writes about the most interesting stories, people, and thoughts in the American South. Want to republish something in The Living South? Write me. If you like The Living South, share it with your friends. That's how we grow.

Over the weekend, Border Patrol agents began their surge in Charlotte. They are expected to move into New Orleans afterward. Their purpose, according to the Department of Homeland Security, is to "protect" Americans from "criminal illegal aliens."

Many of President Trump's supporters have said that they believed he would go after undocumented people who are dangerous criminals. It's become clear, from federal immigration officials' operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and now Charlotte, that the target is much bigger than that.

In North Carolina, Cardinal & Pine reported that, on Saturday, ICE and Border Patrol agents arrested 81 people, the most immigration arrests in the state ever in a single day. Just seven had criminal records, Charlotte City Council member JD Mazuera Arias told CNN. They included landscapers and a church volunteer.

These things are not especially surprising to anyone who's been watching immigration policing in 2025. Most of the people arrested this year by Border Patrol and ICE—two sides of the same coin—do not have criminal records. The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, published a report this summer that found 95% of the people arrested have no history of violent crime.

The distinction probably doesn't matter to the president's most ardent supporters. But to the rest of Americans, most of whom know, are related to, or work with undocumented people, it will. Because the image is of masked, mostly white men terrorizing non-white people going on about their day. And in the South, that's going to ring a lot of bells. Here's why. Keep reading.