Trump’s Border Patrol has invaded North Carolina. Residents across the state are closing up their small businesses, skipping school, missing work, and refusing to go to church out of fear.
Anderson Clayton, Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, joins Jen to give updates on the Border Patrol’s operations, how said operations have instilled fear in vulnerable communities, and why it is economically hurting the state. Clayton also discusses with Jen how North Carolinians are standing up, speaking out, and protecting one another during this invasion.
Anderson Clayton is the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party. Elected at 25 years old, she is the youngest chair of a state Democratic party. Prior to her election as Chair of North Carolina Democratic Party, Chair Clayton served as a chair of the Person County Democratic Party, her hometown county.
Jen Rubin
Hi, this is Jen Rubin, editor-in-Chief of the Contrarian. We’re thrilled to have back with us Anderson Clayton, who is the head of the Democratic Party in North Carolina. Welcome, Anderson.
Anderson Clayton
Thanks for having us, Jen.
Jen Rubin
The president has invaded your state, or… Specifically, he has unleashed, the violent, unhinged, Custom Border Patrol and other federal officials. What’s been the latest in Charlotte and in other states, other cities in the state?
Anderson Clayton
I mean, to your point, I think what we are seeing right now is masked, armed federal agents that are coming into North Carolina, and not only unconstitutionally arresting U.S. citizens, but also breaking state law by being masked in public. Our Republican state legislature actually passed a law trying to prevent people from wearing COVID masks in person, right, or in public places after we had the 2020 sort of pandemic where we had masked people everywhere because it was a global health crisis, right? And because of that, our Republican state legislature had a visceral reaction and ended up passing a state law that prevented that, yet somehow they’re not willing to actually uphold it for people that are running around North Carolina right now without the permission or even the calling in, right, from local elected officials in these communities. And so, we’ve had a really strong response effort. And very grateful to organizations like Siembra, North Carolina, and also El Pueblo and Carolina Migrant Network, who have just done incredible work on the ground, making sure that they’re hosting trainings across the state for if you’re seeing something you need to start documenting, right? Helping people know their rights right now, especially when someone’s coming up to you, that you do not have to speak to a federal agent, when they’re asking you where you’re from, and if you were born in this country legally. which is what they’re doing right now, and it’s everywhere. We had 20,000 kids were out of school in Charlotte-Mecklenburg alone just yesterday, and so we know that this is impacting people’s, just abilities to feel safe going to school and going to work and going to churches, too, even in Charlotte right now.
Jen Rubin
The, invasion, if you will, started in Charlotte, went into Raleigh. What other cities have been affected?
Anderson Clayton
Honestly, everywhere. So, Siembra, the organization that I was talking about, has actually had a, it’s called OJONC.com. You can go to it and see every reported incident of ICE across North Carolina or Border Patrol and where they are in the state. But it’s really been everywhere. I mean, they… I got reports today of they were in Greenville and they were in New Bern, which is sort of in the eastern part of the state. They’ve also been in places like Boone and Lenoir and Linville. In both Western and eastern North Carolina, too. So, it hasn’t just been major urban areas that they’ve been hitting or raiding, it has been also our rural communities, too, across the state.
Jen Rubin
Now, the administration keeps saying over and over again, we’re going after the worst of the worst, but so far, it does not seem that the people they are scooping up have criminal records, let alone violent criminal records. What can you tell us about the sorts of people who are being detained, and, in some cases, really being manhandled by these officials?
Anderson Clayton
Yeah, I mean, I think in and of itself, it’s racial profiling that we’re seeing. It’s people that are… I was just listening to somebody on a podcast earlier tell a story about how, you know, his wife was born in the Dominican Republic, and his daughter was, you know, asking her to stay home from work because she was so scared that she was going to get taken, even though she’s been a naturalized citizen for her… almost her entire life in the United States. And so, it just… it is something where I think the fear of people who do not look, to be honest with you, Jen, like you and I do, right? Getting racially profiled by ICE or Border Patrol and being picked off the street. And some of the cases that we’ve heard are that, you know, people being picked up from work sites who are U.S. citizens will then be dropped off or, like, thrown out of a vehicle, like, a couple miles away from the work site, and their paperwork also thrown out with them, too. And so, even people that are doing every everything that they possibly can to prove that they’re here. And so, and also, like, just the reports that we’re hearing. So, right now, you know, about 250 people have been arrested in only the last three days out of Charlotte and out of North Carolina, right? That’s, a lot harder and faster, honestly, than they did in places like Chicago. So, out of Chicago, about 600 people were detained in the 3-month time span that they were there. And out of that, CNN, it said only 2% of those were actually violent criminals. And I think that that’s what we’re seeing, at least from the former federal prosecutors that I’m talking to, from the President Biden’s administration, who have been really concerned with just what they’re seeing, too, because it is taking away the resources, right, to go to more covert operations to get violent criminals and gang-related incidences out of the United States when you have so much casting wide nets. And I think that that’s the most The most dangerous thing is that it’s not making communities feel safer in them, right?
Jen Rubin
What is it doing to the economic life? I’ve heard reports that, in particular, construction sites, for example, are, empty. People aren’t showing up for work. What are you seeing?
Anderson Clayton
Yeah, I mean, Manolo’s Bakery is one of, I think, the best sort of viral videos that we’ve had. One of, he’s a U.S. citizen, but also an immigrant to this country, and somebody who’s made a business that had been operating in Charlotte for more than 20 years that shut his doors for the first time in that time span, because he was just afraid for his customers to be coming in and out. I mean, they’re targeting places like Home Depot and grocery stores, and not the places that you would typically find your most violent criminals right now, and I think that it’s having the economic impact of people are not, you know, foot traffic is slowed in small businesses. Small businesses have had to shut their doors, and especially in North Carolina, when small businesses are 50% of your workforce, and also farms and agribusiness are the number one economic driver in your state, you have a lot of the realities of that. This is just impacting people, again, who don’t feel safe to go to work, even if they are U.S. citizens. And, it’s just, it’s hit everybody, everywhere, in every sector.
Jen Rubin
Now, the governor and the mayor of Charlotte have spoken out very strongly. Have any of these Republicans spoken up? Have any… have either of your senators, have any of the House of Representatives, from, members from, North Carolina denounced this, question this?
Anderson Clayton
No, and it’s kind of insane to me to see Republicans not stand up for people who are here legally and who are U.S. citizens, who have been and had their rights violated by this federal administration, and who, again, they’re not following state law. And I hope that everybody is making sure that they know that right now, Border Patrol does not have the right to be masked in our state, and they are. They are breaking the law by doing it, and any incidences of them that you see Siembra has got a hotline that they operate 24-7 right now, and trying to make sure that they are making sure anyone detained has legal representation on the other end, and is helping, actually, you know, get people back to their families, too, and making sure their families know how to find them. Because as of right now, there’s not a good tracking system when someone is picked up in the state for how they’re able, or how their family is able to locate them in the system. We’ve seen some instances of people from Charlotte ending up in New Hanover jail sales right now, which does not make any sort of sense when you’re looking at the, how far or distance-wise those places are apart from each other.
Jen Rubin
People don’t normally think of North Carolina as a bastion of liberalism, but, nevertheless. They are responding just as strongly as the people of Chicago did. Talk to us a little bit about the community reaction, what people are doing on their own to help their neighbors, what students are doing.
Anderson Clayton
Yeah, I was gonna say, I think it’s amazing to see students lead the fight. We had a protest and a student walkout of about 30,000 students from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system, and kids who were afraid to see their friends, right, not wanting to come to school because they felt threatened by federal agents, and everybody deserves to feel safe at school and safe at work. And I think that it’s been amazing, you know, we had strong grassroots organizations in the state that have really come together again, like, Carolina Migrant Network and Siembra have just done the Lord’s work, but there’s a lot of mutual aid networks throughout North Carolina that have also carried that fight, and people who have just, you know, said, we want to protect our neighbors. And I don’t think the South has ever taken too kindly to federal agents coming in. It’s just, in this sense, I think we’re on the right side of this one in some ways, so I am grateful that we’re putting up our good resistance all over the ground, and I’m proud of North Carolina for that. Every step of the way.
Jen Rubin
I can… I can understand that sentiment. Roy Cooper, running for Senate, he seems to have opened up a lead in some of the polls. Do you think, the Republicans are being dragged down by the president, dragged down by, the shutdown? What do you think is, The motivating force, for some of that shift in the polls.
Anderson Clayton
I mean, I definitely think one of the reasons why you see Border Patrol in our state right now is that Donald Trump is trying to distract people from the fact that healthcare premiums are about to not just double, but triple. And that’s what we’ve seen across the state, is that people are concerned about rising healthcare costs and rising costs in general for grocery prices and for cost of living. And I think that we’re only going to see more and more people understand that Donald Trump is not fixing crisis right now. he is trying to distract or also create different ones that are not actually going to help the economic mobility of people in this country. And so, I’m really excited because I think Governor Cooper has a record of delivering for people on whether that be eradicating medical debt in the country or in the state, and thinking about that, looking at the country, how many people across the United States have medical debt right now, when you have a southern governor that really prioritizes that, and also the expansion of Medicaid when he did not ever have a Democratic legislature to get that done with. And I think that it shows great bipartisanship on Governor Cooper’s part to make sure that that was a policy that he stood by for the 8 years that he was governor, was making sure that we got Medicaid expanded in North Carolina, and finally was able to do that. So he’s somebody who will never back down from something that we need him to fight for, and I think that’s what we need.
Jen Rubin
November 4, the Democrats just about everywhere won, whether it was a, local committee race, or a DA race in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, or was it governorship. Has that kind of readjusted Democrats’ thinking about what’s a possible pickup state, pickup seat in the state, and where they might pour some more resources, and, certainly make sure that there are good candidates on the ballot up and down?
Anderson Clayton
Yeah, I mean, I’ll be honest, I think all of our congressional seats are… we’ve got phenomenal candidates running in them, and I think places like NC07, where you have David Rouser, who has been constantly selling out his communities, or a NC11 with Chuck Edwards right now, where the population trends are definitely in our direction, and I can see that happening in a good year, like 26, because I think that people everywhere are pissed off. about what’s happening with federal cuts and what they’ve done to places like the Research Triangle, western North Carolina, who’s still not received. People made the joke, they said, man, Donald Trump sent in Border Patrol faster than he sent in help to make sure that everybody from Hurricane Helene got the assistance that they needed, and people are still waiting on that. You know, you have communities and county governments out there that are saying, we’re not going to be able to survive throughout January because we don’t know where that, like, where the money is going. come from, and they’re being stretched too thin. And so, I really think that there needs to be a reprioritization for Western North Carolina and the leadership there, and I think we’re going to see that in folks that are running out of NC11 this year, too.
Jen Rubin
We’ve really seen, corruption in this administration on a scale we have never seen before, using the Justice Department to go after the President’s enemies, knocking down part of the White House to build a ballroom that’s paid for by big tech companies, making himself rich off crypto. much does that penetrate to average voters? Are they pissed when they see that? What’s the reaction in North Carolina?
Anderson Clayton
I mean, I think it’s pissed off Democrats to, like, get motivated. And to be honest with you, I think a lot of what we lost last election cycle to was not to Donald Trump, it was to the couch. You know, it was motivating our own base in a lot of ways to see getting out and voting again as something worth doing. And so I think that what we’re seeing from the corruption angle from this administration is really key to getting out Democrats who care… their values, right, are caring about injustice and fairness. And, and everybody having what they need. But I think what’s really motivating to people across the United States is the fact that people feel like Trump lied to them. And that goes to show you on the aspect of affordability. You know, last election cycle was a change election. The one before it was a change election. We’ve been through them for the last four election cycles, or as long… as many presidential election cycles as I’ve been able to vote in, and I think that, It has been interesting every time to see that, you know, people tell us what they want us to talk about, and people are telling us right now what they’re angry about, and it’s the fact that they cannot take care of everyone else because they can’t take care of themselves first, you know?
Jen Rubin
Understand. The reports are that this invasion was going to be briefer than it was in Chicago. Do you have any sense of when these people are gonna move on to their next target, or are they here for the long haul, as far as you can say?
Anderson Clayton
I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know, but I think as long as they’re here, North Carolina’s gonna be ready to put up the fight. And even after they’re gone, we’re gonna consistently take the lessons from other places and be learning from them and instituting them to help make sure that community resistance is what we have across the ground.
Jen Rubin
Well, wonderful. Well, I will give you a little hint. You should take a look at my undaunted column for tomorrow, celebrating, some of the people there, really all the people there, who have stood up for our values. It must make you very proud to see your fellow North Carolinians, act on their most, deeply held values. So, thank you once again, Anderson. Best of luck, best of luck to the people of North Carolina, and you should know that the rest of the country stands with you and, hopes these folks get out of town quick. And you can go back to life as normal. So thanks so much for joining us, we really appreciate it.
Anderson Clayton
Thanks, Jen.
