By Brad Brooks

(Reuters) -Federal agents arrested at least 81 people in Charlotte, North Carolina this weekend, a senior commander said on Sunday, marking a sharp escalation in the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.

Gregory Bovino, the U.S. Border Patrol official who led immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles and Chicago before he arrived in Charlotte this week, said on social media early Sunday that agents made the North Carolina arrests within a roughly five-hour span on Saturday, their first day of operating in Charlotte. Many of those arrested had “significant criminal and immigration history,” Bovino wrote.

Neither the Border Patrol nor Immigration and Customs Enforcement immediately responded to requests for comment on Sunday. The Department of Homeland Security, whi

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