Wake County residents gathered for a rally on Saturday in Wendell to protest the detainment of a woman by immigration agents while she was working in Cary a week earlier.
Video captured Border Patrol agents seizing Fatima Velasquz-Antonio on Nov. 18 at a construction site, where organizers say she worked. Protesters called for her immediate release.
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Immigration agents with Customs and Border Protection began operating in Wake and Durham counties early in November, with the majority of them in Durham. In Charlotte, more than 200 immigrants were arrested.
Organizers at Saturday’s rally in the Wendell Town Square said Velasquez-Antonio is not the person immigration agents should be targeting and called for her immediate release.
“This is someone who has done nothing wrong,” said Wesley Knott, chair of the Wake County Democratic Party. “She’s gotten two traffic tickets…came here because her mom died from cancer and her dad was murdered by gangs in Honduras. She came here when she was 14 to the only support system she had left.”
Several Democratic leaders spoke at the rally, including Congresswoman Deborah Ross, North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton and State Representatives James Roberson and Phil Rubin.
As of Saturday, Velasquez-Antonio was being held at a detention center in Georgia.
