Two North Carolina women say they were held at gunpoint and detained after honking to warn of immigration agents

All it took was honking their car horn and blowing a whistle while following a vehicle carrying immigration agents searching for undocumented migrants in North Carolina. Two U.S. citizens claim in a lawsuit that those simple actions led to them being chased, threatened with an assault rifle, and ultimately detained for four hours in a federal building. They are now seeking $2.5 million in damages from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Border Patrol.

Tatyana Reisini and Kristen Roos, described in the complaint as close friends who live with their families in Charlotte, were on their way to a holiday festival on November 17, 2025, when they decided to protest the unusual presence of Border Patrol agents in their community. The officers were carrying out a series of arrests as part of Operation Charlotte’s Web. What began as an attempt to warn undocumented neighbors, according to the 17-page lawsuit, ended in an ordeal that left them with “physical, emotional and psychological harm.”

Following vehicles from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol while making as much noise as possible to alert people to their presence has become a common practice in several cities where the agencies conduct enforcement operations. In the most extreme cases, such encounters have had fatal consequences for those who tried to raise the alarm. That was the case for Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were shot and killed in Minneapolis last January.

Reisini and Roos’s case did not end that way, but the Southern Coalition for Social Justice believes it is serious enough to take to court, both to establish a legal precedent and to obtain compensation for the harm the two women suffered. In a lawsuit filed on their behalf in federal court in North Carolina, the organization accuses the federal government of false imprisonment and arrest, battery and assault, malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress, as well as violations of the First and Fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement sent to EL PAÍS that its agents became involved in “a dangerous situation caused by a vehicle that was following them and being driven aggressively.” The agency added that throughout the incident both women showed “a persistent disregard for police authority and public safety” by, in its version, refusing to comply with officers’ orders.

The response echoes the department’s position in other incidents involving agents whose conduct has come under scrutiny, including cases in which officers used their weapons against individuals they viewed as interfering with enforcement operations.

The Reisini and Roos case

What should have been a normal morning for Tatyana Reisini and Kristen Roos took a different turn when they learned immigration agents were operating at a point along the route to the Christmas festival they were heading to. They decided to drive closer in a 2019 Acura MDX. Shortly after, they encountered “a dirty car with out-of-state plates driving next to them,” according to the lawsuit, and began to follow it.

Their suspicions were correct: Border Patrol agents were in the vehicle, and gradually more people joined the protest. “As other vehicles began making noise to alert to the presence of the immigration agents, Tatyana honked her car horn and Kristen blew a whistle,” the complaint recounts.

The two women followed the car to the far end of a shopping center parking lot. There, several agents exited and approached the Acura MDX amid shouting. Reisini, who was driving, managed to maneuver away. The escape, however, lasted only a few minutes. Officers pursued them through several streets until the car reached a dead end. The women called 911 for help, but it was futile: while they were still on the phone, they found themselves surrounded by federal officers.

“An immigration agent pointed his assault rifle at the driver’s side window while multiple agents screamed at them,” the complaint says.

The agents then smashed the vehicle’s windows, opened the doors and restrained the women with plastic zip ties. According to the complaint, one agent noticed a child safety seat in the back of the vehicle and sarcastically told Reisini, “You’re a stellar mom.” She replied: “I am a stellar mom, thank you very much.”

In its statement, DHS said the driver of the Acura MDX had engaged in a “reckless” pursuit, alleging that she swerved around pedestrians and vehicles at a gas station. According to the agency, she also drove “erratically through residential neighborhoods,” ignored multiple stop signs and ran a red light while official vehicles had their sirens activated.

Regarding the arrest, DHS maintained that its agents “used the minimum force necessary to protect the public” while taking into custody the two women, whom the agency described as “agitators.”

That account, however, is at odds with how the case ultimately unfolded. The women were held for nearly four hours in an FBI building before being released with a court summons after being charged with assaulting a federal officer. Three months later, however, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina dropped the charges, and the criminal case was dismissed.

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