All eyes were on Charlotte on Saturday as Border Patrol agents began spearheading immigration enforcement.

Federal officials said this is a move to ensure Americans are safe, but others are saying it is doing the opposite.

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Willy Aceituno, a Honduran-born U.S. citizen, said one minute he was being confronted by immigration officers in a shopping center parking lot. The next he was pulled out of his truck and thrown to the ground.

“What’s wrong?” Aceituno recalled asking. “ He says, ‘Open the door!’ I open the door, you know. ‘I break your window!’ OK, break it.”

Videos circulating on social media appear to show agents detaining people. One video captured an agent leading a man out of a laundromat with his hands forced behind his back.

Emanuel Gomez-Gonzalez, who works with Siembra NC, a Latino community organization involved in community defense and advocacy for immigrant workers in North Carolina, said operations like this are “disrupting the lives of people who live and work in our communities.”

“We've seen it happen in other cities that have experienced this kind of heightened presence, and in the first day, we're already seeing reports of this happening again," he said.

Gomez-Gonzalez said Siembra NC will have community patrols in Charlotte on Sunday.

“There are over 300 people that are trained to become part of these patrols, and we see that as an essential way that we can help ensure that people are able to continue to do the things that they need to do at the day-to-day, places they need to go, for themselves, for their families, because life goes on.”

Local officials have also responded to the operations taking place in Charlotte. North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton released a statement.

“This has only caused unnecessary chaos and sown fear in our communities, and has done nothing to create trust with law enforcement,” the statement read in part.

While others in North Carolina commend the officers' actions.

North Carolina GOP spokesman Matt Mercer provided us a statement in response, reading in part,

“We're grateful to see these brave men and women in federal law enforcement following through on President Trump's promise to remove violent criminal illegals from our country, and those stoking fear about these targeted operations must stop at once,” said Matt Mercer, North Carolina GOP spokesman, in part.

The North Carolina and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Associations of Educators also released a statement following the border agents’ operations.

Our city will not be intimidated. Our schools, our neighborhoods, and our communities deserve safety, stability, and dignity — not fear.