Heather Morrow
Introduction
Heather Morrow, 45, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was sentenced to five months in prison on November 13, 2026, for her role in a blockade of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Enforcement and Removal Operations facility in Charlotte in November 2025 — conduct that a federal jury found included grabbing a federal deportation officer by the shoulder to stop him from arresting a co-defendant . A jury convicted Morrow in September 2026 on charges of assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating and interfering with federal officers performing their official duties, along with three related counts . U.S. District Judge Matthew E. Orso imposed the sentence alongside seven months of supervised release .
Background Information
The case grew out of demonstrations at the ICE/ERO building in Charlotte. Morrow acted alongside William Stanley, 26, also of Charlotte, whom prosecutors described as aiding and abetting one another with Morrow throughout the November 16, 2025 events . The FBI investigated the case, and Assistant United States Attorneys Kenneth Smith and Caryn Finley prosecuted it .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted and sentenced. A federal jury found the conduct proven; Morrow was sentenced to prison.
According to court documents, trial evidence and witness testimony, Morrow and Stanley willfully entered federal property — the grounds of the ICE/ERO building in Charlotte — on November 16, 2025, and engaged in disorderly conduct and other actions that unreasonably obstructed the usual use of the building’s entrances and parking lots .
Morrow, Stanley and three other individuals placed cones on the entrance driveway to the federal property and formed a human chain, blocking ERO Deportation Officers from entering in their official vehicles. Morrow’s own vehicle was parked in the exit lane, blocking vehicles from exiting the federal property .
Trial evidence further established that Stanley stood in front of the government-issued vehicle of an ERO Deportation Officer, blocking the officer from entering the property, and placed his hands on the hood to stop the officer from entering . While the officer was attempting to arrest Stanley, Morrow grabbed the officer by the shoulder, interfering with the attempt to take Stanley into custody — conduct the jury found constituted forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding and intimidating a federal officer engaged in his official duties, amounting to simple assault .
In sentencing Morrow to five months, Judge Orso noted that the case “was not about protesting,” and that “Anytime you interfere with law enforcement during an arrest, it does not get more serious. Defying lawful commands has to have consequences” .
Public Reaction and Consequences
Morrow’s co-defendant received a markedly lighter outcome: William Stanley was previously sentenced to one year of probation — plus 50 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine — for impeding and disrupting the performance of official duties of government employees, failure to comply with the lawful direction of an authorized individual, and obstructing the entrance of federal property; Stanley was not convicted of the assault count Morrow faced . Morrow, by contrast, was ordered to report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility .
Current Status
Morrow has exhausted the charge phase of the case: a federal jury convicted her in September 2026, and Judge Orso sentenced her on November 13, 2026, to five months in prison followed by seven months of supervised release . She will report to the Bureau of Prisons once a facility is designated . The convictions stand unless overturned on appeal; no appeal was noted in the sentencing release .
Impact on Their Career/Life
Morrow’s conviction converts what was framed publicly as protest activity into a federal criminal record that includes a simple-assault finding against a deportation officer — the element Judge Orso singled out as the most serious part of the case . The five-month sentence and supervised-release term put her conduct at the center of the government’s message that blockades of federal facilities and interference with arrests carry prison consequences rather than protest-case dispositions .
Sources
- “Charlotte Woman Sentenced to Prison for Interfering with Federal Officers Performing Official Duties and Related Offenses” — U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of North Carolina / justice.gov, November 2026: source