CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Members from both the Asian and Latino communities in Charlotte spoke before city council members Monday night as dozens more made their feelings known by holding up signs that read "Keep the I.R.U.”

"It looks like the police chief will be set on disbanding the International Relations Unit," is what Tin Nguyen, a member of the city's Vietnamese community told city council.

Angeles Ortega-Moore of the Latin American Coalition said, "Doing away with this unit will create a barrier again between our Latino community and the international community and the police department."

Sources have told Eyewitness News for weeks that the International Relations Unit, which has worked closely with the city's growing international community to build trust and reduce crime since it was formed in 2000, will be disbanded in order to put more officers back on the streets of Charlotte. The unit is compromised of seven officers.

City council members had no response for the protestors because they do not have the power to keep Monroe from disbanding the specialized unit.

Nguyen wrote to Chief Rodney Monroe earlier this month about IRU and received a letter in response.

Monroe told Nguyen in the letter it was "More appropriate for our officers to work with the international population in the broader context of the neighborhoods whey they are located as opposed to considering them in isolation."

Nguyen said that is not enough.

"If each one of these officers don't speak Vietnamese or they don't understand the Vietnamese cultural, then what good are these 7 officers going to do?" Nguyen said.

Others like Ruben Campillo said the unit has helped reduce crime, one of Monroe's top priorities.

"Getting officers on the street is not the only way we can approach reducing crime," he said.

"Units like this are important and they play a crucial role in lowering crime overall."