DURHAM, N.C. — Hours after local officials in Charlotte, North Carolina, announced that the federal Border Patrol operation in the city had ended, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that it was neither over nor “ending anytime soon.”

Mayor Vi Lyles and Garry McFadden, the sheriff of Mecklenburg County, both Democrats, had said earlier Thursday that it appeared the operation, which began last Saturday, had concluded. The sheriff cited unnamed federal officials in his statement, noting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a separate agency under the Department of Homeland Security, would continue to operate in the county “as they always have.”

But Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for homeland security, said in a statement about two hours later that t

See Full Page