North Carolina’s Research Triangle, a largely liberal area, saw an outpouring of community support as the United States Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) moved into Raleigh and its surrounding cities. 

Immigrant and Latino communities described a sense of fear, driving many people to stay home from work and keep their kids from school. The Triangle rallied around those same communities: grocery stores provided free grocery delivery, activist groups organized mutual aid and crowds gathered to protest the CBP presence. But other community members supported the actions of immigration enforcement in North Carolina. 

Only about 36.5% of voters in the Triangle voted for President Donald Trump. President Trump campaigned heavily on a crackdown on illegal immigrants, promising to remove 15 to 20 million illegal immigrants from the country during his presidency.

A Facebook group for conservatives in North Carolina exploded with posts supporting CBP. Floods of commenters said they supported U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and called for the deportation of illegal immigrants, but many of these commenters were not from the Triangle area.

(One commenter asked jokingly, “Are there conservatives in the Triangle?”)

From reading comments, it’s clear that conservatives largely support deporting immigrants. The way they express this belief can range from spewing angry, racist comments to a quiet support for deportation efforts. Many posted memes, joking about the failure of Democrats or AI depictions of President Donald Trump.

 

“Get all the foreign leeching invaders out of our country,” one comment read. “ICE, ICE baby!”

Though conservatives in the Triangle generally support the deportation efforts that the Trump administration put forth, some said they feel empathy for immigrants on an individual level.

Amy McCoy, a resident of Johnston County, described herself as a Christian conservative who lives a rural life. She said she holds a unique position as a conservative because she feels empathy for the immigrants affected in November.

“I don’t even think people are really caring about legal versus illegal,” McCoy said. “You know, even legal people seem to be getting discriminated against and just lumped in with one big pile of humanity. As someone who did live in Ukraine, it is so hard to move to a country – everybody sees that you’re different.”

McCoy and her family moved to Ukraine for two years in 2013 because she adopted two children from Ukraine. McCoy recounted her personal experience as an immigrant living in a foreign country and said she had difficulties with the immigration system. As adoptive parents, the McCoys were eligible for green cards, which had to be renewed every three months by leaving the country and returning. 

During one cycle, McCoy had difficulties receiving her green card. When crossing through border security, she received shocking news: she had been deported. 

“We started praying, and we’re like, ‘Lord, Lord, we can’t be separated as a family,’” McCoy said. “We have a house. We can’t afford to set up residence in another country or go back to America. I mean, just plane tickets would have been $10,000 to get us back to America. And we had nothing left there. We had sold everything.”

McCoy was able to re-enter the country and resolve her legal status issues thanks to the kindness of a border agent. 

“Because he saw my baby,” McCoy said. “He had compassion that I don’t see – Americans have no compassion for the children caught in the middle of all this. He saw my baby, and he said, ‘I don’t want this baby separated from her mother.’”

McCoy said her experiences gave her a unique perspective on the immigration process, one that has led her to have compassion for those affected by increased immigration controls. However, she said she still supports aspects of the deportation efforts.

“I just think that we need to be more serious about crime across the board,” McCoy said. “And as far as the immigration policies, did I vote for what’s happening or not? I voted for the criminal aspect absolutely to be removed.”

Conservatives are more likely than other parties to describe crime as a very serious issue, according to a poll by Gallup. However, both property and violent crime nationwide have seen historic drops over the past three years. Across major cities, murder has gone down an average of 21.9% from the past year. In Charlotte, murder has gone down 32.2%.

The top issue for all voters in 2025 is the economy, specifically affordability, according to YouGov polling. Voters like Mike, a Triangle resident and lifelong Republican, believe illegal immigrants cause a strain on the economy. Mike did not want his last name included in this story. 

“I think our country can do a lot more for our citizens that live here, our legal residents, whether they’re immigrants and have legal status which is like my wife – now, she doesn’t need help because she’s married, doing well,” Mike said. “But they should do more to help them. And I think that people got upset by that. They see these people getting a lot of help, just walking into the country.”

The Trump administration has made efforts to roll back federal social services that support low-income people, like funding for Medicaid and eligibility for SNAP. As inflation and prices continue to rise, many are left wondering how they will afford their daily lives.

Preston Hill, president of the Young Republicans and Turning Point USA at UNC-Chapel Hill, said that his political philosophy can be described as “whatever benefits America, whatever puts the people here first.”

Hill said that he is satisfied with his vote for President Trump and his immigration policies. 

He added that he has sympathy for the people who live illegally in the United States, but also has respect for America’s due process and laws.

Hill emphasized his belief that the U.S. government should provide more for its people, and that the Republican Party should use the government to do so.

“Right now, we’re having conversations about how to handle health care and how to handle welfare programs in the country,” Hill said. “How to lower costs, how to have affordability for people in the country. I think that it’s a disservice to the country to not prioritize, I would say, taking care and using and implementing a lot of those programs for individuals who already live here, and who were born here.”

The views expressed above were more nuanced and thoughtful than the online response might have suggested. As the political climate grows more and more polarized, online spaces have only intensified polarization and often don’t provide a space for nuanced conversation.

Though conservatives in the Triangle may be a minority, it’s clear that the conversation around immigration has been one on the minds of all North Carolinians. A closer look reveals the undercurrent of another issue: concerns of affordability and quality of life that go beyond the issue of immigration, affecting Americans on either side of the political spectrum.

McCoy hoped that by sharing her story, she could encourage more open dialogue between community members. 

“There’s not a lot of trust between the left and the right,” McCoy said. “And I wonder, can our people and our government ever really work together and come up with solutions that benefit everybody by working together? Or are we so politically divided that that’s impossible now?”