Participants blow whistles in a role-playing session during training at Dilworth United Methodist Church in Charlotte, N.C. The training taught participants how to document and protest immigration raids that have targeted the city. (Screenshot Photo Courtesy of Rev. Joel Simpson/Facebook)
Nov. 20, 2025
Hundreds of outraged residents of Charlotte, N.C., attended training this week in non-violent techniques to document and protest – but not physically disrupt – immigration enforcement raids that began Nov. 15 in their city.
In addition, a local news outlet in Worcester, Mass., published an exclusive report alleging that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security plan to target churches and other houses of worship during the coming holidays for immigration raids.
In Charlotte, Dilworth United Methodist Church was packed Nov. 19 with more than 1,000 people seeking instruction in how to document and protest immigration raids that have closed businesses, emptied classrooms and sown fear and anger throughout North Carolina’s “Queen City.” Another training is scheduled Nov. 24 at Myers Park UMC in Charlotte.
The Rev. Joel Simpson, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Taylorsville, N.C., about 90 minutes northwest of Charlotte, posted several accounts of the training on his Facebook page. Rev. Simpson also was interviewed by CNN and other news outlets about the sessions, which he and others organized over the past several weeks in cooperation of Siembra NC, an immigrant-advocacy organization founded in 2017 during the first administration of President Donald Trump.
“Some of us in the United Methodist Church have been talking and planning with Siembra NC for months to organize ICE Watch trainings in the Charlotte area,” Simpson posted. “We anticipated ICE would arrive in full force early next year. Instead, they showed up on the very same weekend we had scheduled our first sets of trainings.”
“Now, we’ve had hundreds of people showing up and being trained to support members of our communities for the exact moment we need each other the most,” Rev. Simpson continued. “In all the violence and harm happening, there is also a deep spirit of love, justice, and compassion at work (along with a little bit of perfect timing).”
Matt Kelley AP
Federal Enforcement North Carolina
Protesters pose for a photo as they hold signs amid the arrival of federal law enforcement, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
“This is our community, and these are people we love,” the pastor said. “We will protect and defend our immigrant neighbors with all the nonviolent tools we have. ... Someone is hurting our people, and we won’t be silent anymore.”
Rev. Simpson reported Nov. 19: “We are still tired and angry and heartbroken. But Monday, over 300 people were trained. Last night, over 500 were trained. Tonight, 1,000 people signed up to be trained. We had to ask some people to reschedule so we could fit everyone.”
'The plan is simple'
Dalia Faheid, Andy Buck and Dianne Gallagher of CNN reported on the Nov. 19 session at Dilworth UMC, including photos of role-playing scenarios in which trainees took photographs and blew whistles to document the actions.
“The plan is simple: Volunteers sign up for shifts and receive instructions from a ‘patrol dispatch team’ on specific zones in Charlotte they will drive around in and alert people when they see immigration enforcement activity,” said their report. “They’re advised to do it in pairs, keep a safe distance from agents and to never try to physically impede law enforcement.”
CNN quoted Rev. Simpson that the effort got “ ‘best practices’ from other communities that have been stops in the administration’s immigration blitz, including Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, DC.”
CNN also reported “more than 30,000 students were absent from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools on Nov. 17, about 20% of the district’s enrollment.” Additionally, many small businesses owned by immigrants who are U.S. citizens or legal residents have closed because immigration agents arrested people outside their locations.
“A Colombian bakery open for 28 years closed its doors Saturday after men in tactical gear chased and tackled people outside the shop,” CNN reported. “Community members showed up afterwards to guard the business.”
There is no accounting yet of how much the enforcement blitz has damaged Charlotte’s economy as immigrants avoid work, worship, shopping, even urgent medical care to evade agents. As of Nov. 19, an estimated 250 persons had been arrested.
Churches allegedly targeted for holidays
While Charlotte training proceeded, a local news outlet, This Week in Worcester (Masschusetts), published an exclusive report: Trump DHS Plans Immigration Raids on Churches Over Holidays.
This Week in Worcester’s John Keough wrote Nov. 17:
“Agencies within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), intend to implement a comprehensive plan to target Spanish-speaking churches across the country during the upcoming holiday season between Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, and Christmas, Dec. 25.
“Three U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys, including one assigned to the U.S. Attorney’s office in the district of Massachusetts, one to the district of Rhode Island office, and the third posted at an office in New York, told This Week in Worcester they received briefings on the plan.”
Keough also wrote: “Two Hispanic pastors who lead Southern Baptist churches in New England say that SBC President Clint Pressley and its executive board received briefings on the plan and discussed it with Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller and White House Border Czar Tom Homan."
“An SBC representative says neither Pressley nor its executive committee received any briefing on the plan.”
The Charlotte Observer reported Nov. 16: “Congregants of an east Charlotte church scattered into the woods Saturday when masked federal agents arrived and detained one of their members, according to witnesses. About 15 to 20 church members were doing yard work on the property off Albemarle Road while their children played games and their spouses cooked meals. Agents parked just outside a closed gate leading to the church parking lot and ran into the yard, said the pastor, who did not want to identify himself or his church.”
“… Fifteen-year-old Miguel Vazquez was one of the people who took off running when federal agents arrived. ‘I thought, “Wait, why am I running? I’m a citizen,” Vazquez said.”
Before the enforcement blitz began, Western North Carolina Bishop Ken Carter – like UMC bishops in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, Ore. – sent a pastoral letter Nov. 14 to United Methodist churches in the region. He wrote in part:
“Immigration policy and the implementation of that policy can and should be humane, transparent, and nonviolent. Yet when enforcement actions cause fear, disrupt communities, or treat people without the dignity they deserve as children of God, we are called as followers of Jesus to respond with solidarity, compassion, and nonviolence. In doing so, we embody the Beatitudes (Matthew 5) and the mercy shown in the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10).
“We are not called to turn away from the suffering of our immigrant siblings. Like God who heard the cries of the Israelites (Exodus 3), we too must listen and draw near. And even in moments of tension or threat, we are instructed not to return violence for violence (Matthew 5:38–48). This is a moment to model the peaceable kingdom Isaiah envisioned (Isaiah 11) and to live “a more excellent way”—the way of love (1 Corinthians 13).”
Cynthia B. Astle is Editor and Founder of United Methodist Insight.