Families in North Carolina say a weekend immigration enforcement operation at a popular summer swimming area left some people scrambling to find relatives who were suddenly taken into federal custody, while authorities say 13 people were arrested and no children were separated from their families.
WSOC-TV Channel 9 reporter Dave Faherty said Immigration and Customs Enforcement worked with the U.S. Forest Service during the operation at Wilson Creek in Caldwell County, where a checkpoint was set up for roughly two and a half hours on Sunday as agents screened people leaving the national forest.
The Department of Homeland Security said all 13 people arrested were in the country illegally and that many had criminal histories, including DUI convictions and illegal re-entry, while people who visited the area afterward questioned whether authorities had deliberately chosen a place known for attracting Hispanic families on summer weekends.
Families Say Relatives Were Suddenly Gone
Faherty reported that one woman from Lincoln County said her parents had been taken out of North Carolina and were being held at an immigration detention center in Georgia.
For families trying to determine where relatives had gone after the operation, the sudden movement from a recreational area to federal detention created confusion that continued well after the checkpoint had disappeared.
Sandra Salazar, founder of Hands of Hope in Morganton, told Channel 9 that she went to Wilson Creek during the operation and recorded people in custody being transported out of the national forest.
She said several vehicles were also towed.
After the road reopened, Salazar said she found people hiding in wooded areas and along the creek, including one man who approached her because he no longer knew where the people who had been with him were.
“The people that were with me are no longer with me, and I don’t know what to do. I don’t know where my family is,” Salazar recalled him saying.
That description helps explain why families used language suggesting that loved ones had simply vanished. Federal authorities knew where those taken into custody were going, but relatives at the scene did not necessarily have that information as the operation unfolded.
Wilson Creek Is a Popular Family Destination
Wilson Creek is not an industrial workplace or an immigration office, but a popular recreation area where families travel to swim, gather, and spend time outdoors during the warmer months.
Faherty said the creek draws visitors from as far away as Charlotte, and the atmosphere there was notably quieter about 48 hours after the enforcement action.
One woman who returned to the area asked Channel 9 not to show her face and said she believed DHS had gone too far by carrying out the operation at a place where Hispanic families commonly gather.
“I feel like it’s becoming more of a common thread that now even in peaceful places where families should be able to feel safe and enjoy time together,” she said.
Her concern was not that immigration laws do not exist, but that enforcement had reached into a setting families generally associate with recreation rather than policing.
That distinction is likely to remain central to the debate around the operation. Supporters can argue that immigration law applies regardless of location, while critics see the choice of a family swimming area as a form of enforcement that inevitably reaches beyond the individuals being arrested and affects everyone around them.
DHS Says Those Arrested Will Receive Due Process
The Department of Homeland Security defended the operation and said the people arrested would remain in ICE custody while their immigration cases proceed.
“All of the illegal aliens arrested have or will receive full due process,” DHS said in a statement provided in connection with Faherty’s report. “They will remain in ICE custody pending their removal.”
The agency also said many of those detained had criminal histories, pointing specifically to offenses such as DUI and unlawful re-entry.
Those claims come from DHS and were not independently detailed person by person in the Channel 9 report.
The Caldwell County sheriff also said no children were separated from their families during the enforcement operation, addressing one of the major concerns raised after witnesses described people hiding and searching for relatives.
That assurance is significant, although it does not erase the uncertainty experienced by adults at the scene who did not immediately know where family members had been taken.
Sheriff’s Deputies Assisted but Made No Arrests
Faherty reported that the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office routinely patrols Wilson Creek on weekends and holidays and assisted federal authorities during Sunday’s operation.
The sheriff said local deputies did not take anyone into custody.
Instead, the arrests were part of the federal immigration action involving ICE and the U.S. Forest Service.
That separation matters because residents may have seen local law enforcement alongside federal agents without necessarily knowing which agency was responsible for specific arrests.
The operation lasted about two and a half hours, according to the sheriff, but its effects continued much longer for the families trying to determine what had happened to relatives who had been taken away.
One Local Resident Says Lawmakers Should Change the Law
Not everyone Faherty spoke with opposed the enforcement action.
Caldwell County resident Marvin Oliver visited Wilson Creek with his family and said the larger responsibility belongs with elected lawmakers if they believe current immigration laws should operate differently.
“Senators and representatives have the ability to change it by changing the laws,” Oliver said. “And until they do, you can’t pick and choose which laws you obey.”
His comments reflected the other side of the argument: that the controversy should be directed toward the laws themselves rather than officers enforcing them.
That view does not necessarily resolve questions about where and how immigration enforcement should take place, but it highlights the political divide surrounding operations like the one at Wilson Creek.
One side sees an agency carrying out existing federal law. The other sees an increasingly aggressive enforcement strategy reaching into spaces where families once assumed they could gather without fear of a checkpoint.
The Human Impact Continued After the Agents Left
By the time Faherty returned to Wilson Creek, the federal operation was over and the area was largely quiet again.
But for the people whose relatives had been detained, the story had moved beyond the creek itself.
Some were trying to learn where family members had been transferred, while community advocates were helping people who had hidden during the enforcement action or become separated from the adults they had arrived with.
DHS says the 13 people arrested are being processed through the immigration system and will receive due process, while the sheriff maintains that no children were separated during the operation.
At the same time, accounts from Salazar and other visitors show how disorienting an immigration sweep can be for everyone nearby, particularly when people are moved quickly from a recreational area into federal custody.
The disagreement over Wilson Creek is therefore about more than the number of arrests. It is also about what immigration enforcement looks like when it takes place in ordinary public spaces, and how families experience those operations when someone they arrived with is suddenly no longer there.
Ed spent his childhood in the backwoods of Maine, where harsh winters taught him the value of survival skills. With a background in bushcraft and off-grid living, Ed has honed his expertise in fire-making, hunting, and wild foraging. He writes from personal experience, sharing practical tips and hands-on techniques to thrive in any outdoor environment. Whether it’s primitive camping or full-scale survival, Ed’s advice is grounded in real-life challenges.
