The Trump administration has controversially named its new immigration sweep in North Carolina’s largest city ‘Operation Charlotte’s Web’. However, E.B. White’s granddaughter, whose grandfather authored the classic 1952 children’s tale, stated the wave of arrests goes against what he and his beloved book stood for.
“He believed in the rule of law and due process,” Martha White said in a statement. “He certainly didn’t believe in masked men, in unmarked cars, raiding people’s homes and workplaces without IDs or summons.”
White, whose grandfather died in 1985, works as his literary executor. She pointed out that in “Charlotte’s Web,” the spider who is the main character devoted her life on the farm to securing the freedom of a pig named Wilbur.
The Trump administration and Republican leaders have seized on a number of catchy phrases while carrying out mass deportation efforts — naming their holding facilities Alligator Alcatraz in Florida, Speedway Slammer in Indiana and Cornhusker Clink in Nebraska.
Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official now on the ground in Charlotte, was the face of the “Operation At Large” in Los Angeles and “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago, two enforcement surges earlier this year.
As the Charlotte operation got underway, Bovino quoted from “Charlotte’s Web” in a social media post: “We take to the breeze, we go as we please.”
The flurry of activity prompted fear and questions, including where detainees would be held, how long the operation would last and what agents’ tactics — criticized elsewhere as aggressive and racist — would look like in North Carolina.
On Saturday, at least one U.S. citizen said he was thrown to the ground and briefly detained.
At Camino, a nonprofit group that offers services to Latino communities, some said they were too afraid to leave their homes to attend school, medical appointments or work.
A dental clinic the group runs had nine cancellations on Friday, spokesperson Paola Garcia said. “Latinos love this country. They came here to escape socialism and communism, and they’re hard workers and people of faith,” Garcia said.
“They love their family, and it’s just so sad to see that this community now has this target on their back.”
Bovino’s operations in Chicago and Los Angeles triggered lawsuits over the use of force, including widespread deployment of chemical agents. Democratic leaders in both cities accused agents of inflaming community tensions. Federal agents fatally shot one suburban Chicago man during a traffic stop.
