An empty aisle in a usually busy Latino grocery store in Garner, N.C. Nov. 18, 2025, as federal Border Patrol agents began an immigration crackdown in the Triangle. (Photo: Laura Leslie/NC Newsline)
At a small Latino shopping center tucked into the corner of a Garner neighborhood, the usually bustling parking lot was mostly empty Tuesday morning.
Emilin Gaona was behind the counter at La Zacatecana, a small, tidy, family-owned bodega. She said her family almost hadn’t opened the store this morning. A lot of their workers were too afraid to come in, she said, because of the news that the Border Patrol would be active in Raleigh.
Gaona said she and her mother decided to open anyway because many people in the community rely on the small store to pay bills and send money internationally. But she said they had had almost no business as of midday.
Gaona was born in the United States, but she’s still nervous about the federal agents.
“I was kind of scared to even drive over here because, like, they see you, they see brown, they’re stopping you,” Gaona told NC Newsline. “They don’t let you show your papers. They don’t really care about that. They just take you.”
Gaona’s 12-year-old sister is a U.S. citizen, too. She said her sister had seen what was happening on her phone and didn’t want to go to her Garner school this morning.
“She was crying because she was scared. She was afraid. And I get it, I understand,” Gaona said. “But we can’t really stop our lives either, and we just have to keep going.”
Next door, the Elvia hair salon was closed. Two doors down, the Tres Hermanos grocery store was open, but there wasn’t a single customer browsing its aisles or ordering at the meat counter. The manager declined to be interviewed, but said business was very, very slow.
It was the same story all across Garner, a working-class suburb of Raleigh with a sizable Latino population.
At the Home Depot, the contractor parking area – usually packed – was nearly empty. Most of the shops at the International Foods plaza, a major Latino shopping center, were closed at midday. A taekwondo studio had a sign in its window: “No class today and tomorrow due to the situation ongoing in our cities.”
NC Newsline asked Gov. Josh Stein Tuesday why he believes North Carolina is being targeted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Stein said he doesn’t know.
“We’ve reached out to the White House. We haven’t gotten any word,” Stein said after an event in Benson on Tuesday. “We’re not hearing directly from [U.S.] Customs and Border Patrol, so we don’t know for sure where they’re going, how long they’ll be here, where else they’re going.”
Stein, a Democrat, accused Border Patrol agents of “operating in the shadows” in the recent sweep in Charlotte.
“If this were targeted to going after known people who are criminals or known people who are drug traffickers who are engaged in violent crime, that would be a good thing,” Stein said. “But they’re just sweeping sidewalks. They’re sweeping parking lots. They’re going into stores and churches.”
“This is causing widespread fear, widespread uncertainty,” Stein added. “This is not about public safety.”
NC Newsline also asked U.S. Customs and Border Patrol why they’re targeting North Carolina. The agency did not immediately respond.
However, Dan Bovino, the commanding CBP agent who has led operations in Chicago and now Charlotte, has instead targeted Stein through social media posts and TV hits.
He accused the governor of using “heated rhetoric” in a Fox News appearance Tuesday. And he later reposted a video of a woman threatening agents with a screwdriver on X, writing: “Governor Stein, you caused this.”
“I put a lot of the blame on our elected leadership,” Bovino told Fox News.
NC Newsline’s Brandon Kingdollar contributed to this report.
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