Pittsboro Police: evidence of trafficking at "massage parlor" | Fact check: did counter-protester commit hit-and-run at Raleigh No Kings? | Honduran family returned to Honduras: is it news?
No. 170 — Mar. 29-Apr. 4, 2026
A Honduran family with children in the Durham Public Schools has been deported: open borders activists claim no due process, while DHS reports that the family was properly removed after entering illegally and being released into the interior by the Biden administration.
A late-night Raleigh stabbing incident sent six to the hospital, but witnesses describe it as more of a mass brawl which escalated, rather than any sort of active stabber event.
Pittsboro police raided a massage parlor after finding evidence of illegal sexual activity and potential human trafficking, following a pattern of Asian owned/operated brothels disguised as massage parlors which have been busted across the Triangle over the last decade.
Left-wing activists accused a counter-protester in a “Support ICE” decorated truck of “swerv[ing]” and “knock[ing] down” an anti-Trump protester at the recent No Kings protest in Raleigh, but police say they that such a collision was neither observed by nor reported to nearby officers.
A free speech watchdog is jumping in after a UNC-Chapel Hill senior vice provost promised to investigate a student organization for making a satirical video mocking racism.
ICE deports “Durham family” (actually Biden-era Honduran “refugees”)
Immigrant advocates in North Carolina say family was deported without due process - ABC News
Two Durham Elementary Students and Their Parents Were Detained and Deported In the Span of Three Days - INDY Week
State, city leaders call for transparency in Durham family’s deportation - CBS17
Two Durham Public Schools students detained, deported by ICE - WRAL
Was a Durham family “kidnapped” in the middle of the day, or did ICE merely return a family of illegitimate “asylum” applicants who skipped a court date to their home, saving taxpayers the $22.7k spent annually by the Durham Public Schools to educate each of their two elementary school children?
The former is the framing adopted by Siembra NC and State Sen. Sophia Chitlik (D-Durham) in a press conference held on Thursday, neither of whom seem to have ever found a foreigner they would exclude from our country (not even criminals convicted of violent offenses).
Both Siembra NC and the Department of Homeland Security agree that Nelson Ramon Espinoza Sierra, Dacia Mariela Pacheco Galindo, and their two children Genesis Elizabeth Espinoza Pacheco and Denis Daniel Espinoza Pacheco were released into the interior of our country after traveling from their home country of Honduras to cross the border without prior authorization.
DHS characterizes this as entering “illegally”, while the opponents of immigration enforcement as exercising a right to “asylum” under American law. According to a 2023 report by the Senate Judiciary Committee, DHS released over 2,148,738 border-hoppers into the US during just the first 26 months of the Biden administration, with only 6% of the “asylum seekers” even being screened for “fear of persecution” in their own country.
When the Espinoza-Pachecos showed up for an immigration appointment in Charlotte, they were detained and swiftly deported to Honduras; according to DHS, the family had no pending asylum claims, and had been issued a final order of removal by a judge after missing a previous hearing.
Siembra NC declined to answer questions from reporters regarding the basis on which the Espinoza-Pachecos made their “asylum” claim, other than the assumed preference for residing in America, or what specific “due process” had been violating, instead pointing to the fact that they may not have had access to an attorney.
At the press conference, Chitlik also announced that many of her colleagues on “town commission,” “city council,” and “school board” had agreed to provide “protective presence” at immigration hearings. (Durham Public Schools Board of Education Chair Bettina Umstead also spoke at the event).
A relative of the Espinoza-Pachecos who was waiting outside the immigration appointment when the family was detained has collected nearly $30k so far to help the family with “food, clothing, shelter, and basic stability” as they “restart their lives” in their country of origin.
Six stabbed in late-night Raleigh brawl
Police charge 1 man after multiple people stabbed in downtown Raleigh overnight - N&O
Man accused of stabbing six people in downtown Raleigh remains in hospital - WRAL
Witness sensed crowd’s ‘vibes’ before 6 stabbed in downtown Raleigh brawl, man arrested; 20 involved, bystanders say - CBS17
6 hurt in overnight stabbing in Downtown Raleigh after fight - ABC11
Just past midnight on Saturday morning, a brawl on Fayetteville St. in downtown Raleigh involving around 20 participants resulted in six people being being taken to the hospital with non-life threatening stab wounds.
“”It was two groups walking in opposite directions,” said and they just got into a verbal argument that escalated,” said local bar owner Kyle Taylor, who witnessed the confrontation.
Frank Lalich, 35, has been charged with four counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to seriously injure, according to Raleigh Police.
Given that Lalich is one of the individuals taken to the hospital with serious injuries, and he is only charged with four counts, it is not clear from the police’s limited statement whether there were any other knifemen involved in the incident, who started the violence, or what role self-defense may have played in some of the injuries inflicted.
Pittsboro police investigate sex trafficking at massage parlor
Why police in this small NC town allege potential human trafficking at local spa - N&O
Pittsboro police investigate Blue Jade Spa amid human trafficking concerns - ABC11
Press Release - Pittsboro Police
On Friday, police raided what appears to be a massage parlor operating as a brothel on US-64 inside Pittsboro town limits, in a building which until somewhat recently housed an accounting/professional services firm.
According to a press release, Pittsboro Police received a complaint that “Blue Jade Spa” was operating as an unlicensed massage parlor, and that there were individuals living at and rarely leaving the property.
When police investigated, they found “probable cause indicating illegal sexual activity and potential human trafficking occurring at the business” and executed a search warrant on Friday, though no arrests were made and no details of the warrant appear to be available.
The stereotype of the Asian massage parlor as a front for prostitution has an objective basis in reality, with such enterprises often involving the human trafficking of female immigrants.
A report by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center reveals that the institution’s hotline received over two-thousand substantive calls about “human trafficking at illicit massage businesses;” of the 21% of calls which specified the country of origin of the victims, 77% were in references to Asian victims, most often from China.
Previous prostitution/massage parlor related law enforcement actions in the Triangle, which all happen to involve Asians, include:
2016, 2019: Quan Chun Li accused of owning massage parlor brothels in Apex and Durham, linked to Chinese mafia
2016: Seong Fan Chen and Xin Lan Chao charged with practicing massage therapy without a license at Li’s Apex massage parlor
2017: Ri Ping Lan charged with human trafficking and promoting prostitution at a Knightdale massage parlor
2017: Huilan Tian attempted to bribe police not to investigate Raleigh massage parlor
2018: Jai Liu, of Cary, charged with promoting prostitution at Greensboro massage parlor, where Fan Chen moved to after Apex arrest
2018: Raleigh massage parlor worker Li Qaungbi charged with prostitution
2019: Lian Jin Xu received suspended sentence of 16 to 29 months for promoting prostitution at Li’s Durham massage parlor, which she managed
2020: Jin Hua Li and Jin Hongmei charged with prostitution and practicing massage therapy without a license at two separate locations in Cary
Fact Check: Left-wing activists fabricate claims about alleged hit-and-run by counter-protester at No Kings protest
“BREAKING: MAGAt in Trump-decorated truck deliberately knocks down peaceful “No Kings” protester in Raleigh and cops let him drive away with broken mirror!”
That’s the opening line of a post by a left-wing Facebook page with 11 million followers which has garnered 50,000 reactions and 11,000 comments; the post goes on to claim that police in Raleigh had allowed a counter-protester to leave in his truck despite “shocking video” which showed him “swerving toward peaceful protesters on the sidewalk and striking one of them” at the No Kings protest at the state capitol on March 28.
However, the Occupy Democrats post curiously only includes screenshots from the video showing the driver and the “Support ICE” message drawn on his windows, perhaps because even the edited version of the video available from other accounts online does not match the sensationalized narrative being promoted.
In response to an inquiry by the Triangle Trumpet, the NC State Capitol Police clarified that their officers, who video shows were nearby the incident, did not witness a pedestrian collision, and had not received any reports of a pedestrian collision either from a driver or from any pedestrian.
The version of the video which I was able to find starts with the anti-Trump protesters huddled around a truck in the lane closes to the capitol on S Salisbury St, with the man behind the camera leaning over the windshield in an apparent attempt to record the truck’s VIN. The truck is several feet from the curb, with multiple demonstrators in the roadway to the front and drivers side of the vehicle.
A voice which appears to belong to the cameraman can be heard shouting “Do it, b---h! Do it! Do it, b---h! You ain’t gonna do s--t!” while others can be heard attempting to get the demonstrators to “back up.”
The video then jumps to the next clip, where the driver has switched lanes away from the demonstration and is at the intersection of S Salisbury St and W Morgan St. The light appears to be green, granting the driver right of way, but a pedestrian with a sign is crossing in front.
As soon as the demonstrator comes around the left corner of the vehicle to the driver’s side, the driver lets off the brake and begins to accelerate, appearing to hit the demonstrator in the shoulder with the side mirror of the truck. This appears to be the collision in question, as the voice behind the camera begins to shout to a nearby police officer: “He just hit that person! Get him! He hit that person!”
In the next clip, the driver has made a left turn onto W Morgan St, and appears to be attempting to reattach the side mirror into its frame. A handful of police officers, who have apparently been nearby for the entire interaction, approach the driver and appear to indicate that he should leave despite impassioned shouts such as “Do your d--n job, f---ing lazy pieces of s--t!”
The final clip appears to be a different camera recording the same interaction of the police approaching the driver, in which he can be heard asking the officers if he’s “good to drive” with the damaged mirror; the verbal response of the officers doesn’t seem clear from the audio, with one perhaps telling him to “call and report” before waving him to continue driving.
The uniform and sleeve patch worn by the officers matches identifies them as NC State Capitol Police.
At no point in the video does the driver appear to “swerve” anywhere, let alone towards the sidewalk.
UNC student org. under investigation for mocking racism
The collective inability for UNC-Chapel Hill to take a joke has taken a turn into the legal realm, with a free speech watchdog raising issue with the fact that a UNC-CH Senior Vice Provost has responded to the outcry over “harmful” April Fool’s Day satire with a promise to investigate and/or discourage such “highly inappropriate and offensive” content.
In addition to the satirical articles published by the Daily Tar Heel student newspaper, UNC-CH student “late-night sketch comedy show” Hill After Hours drew criticism for publishing a comedic video in which a well-meaning anti-racist white female student from Granville Towers takes bodyguards to visit the “third world country” of South Campus.
Although anyone with the slightest modicum of “media literacy” would understand that the stereotypical beliefs were the butt of the sketch’s joke, Senior Vice Provost for Student Success James Orr appeared to be referencing Hill After Hours when he promised a Student Affairs investigation into a “video that was produced by a registered student organization” as part of a statement on “recent content of both a racist and insensitive nature.”
The other content Orr’s statement referenced was the written satirical content by the Daily Tar Heel, which Orr “unequivocally condemn[ed]” on behalf of the university as “harmful” and “highly inappropriate and offensive” while explaining that DTH was an independent organization over whom UNC-CH has no control.
Orr nonetheless promised to use his bully pulpit against DTH over the satire: “Student Affairs will meet with DTH leadership to engage in a conversation that reinforces our values and commitment to fostering a welcoming environment for all students.”
This heavy-handed institutional response to offensive satirical material has attracted the attention of free speech/campus watchdog Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which accused UNC-CH in a public letter of violating not only policy and state law, which requires the public institution to “remain neutral...on the political controversies of the day,” but also the US Constitution. (The Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment protects the publishers of satire and parody not just from official retaliation, but from government officials like Orr engaging in activities such as public statements which would “chill or silence a person of ordinary firmness from future First Amendment activities.”)
Although DTH was self-aware and self-deprecating enough to satirize itself as the “Daily Woke Heel” with jokes about DEI consultants and over-sensitivity, it apparently lacks either the courage or the motivation to not plunge full steam ahead into the wokest response possible, with a follow-up second apology announcing the following:
apologies to racially/ethnically organized student groups
adding a professional news adviser to the DTH staff
instituting biannual staff DEI training with assistance from professors at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media
satire ban for the rest of the semester
internal and external review of how the April Fool’s Day satire edition made it to print
resignation of the opinion editors
Previous Coverage:
April Fool’s Day satire gets “cancelled” at UNC (No. 170 — Apr. 4, 2026)