After years of battles, NC GOP is on the cusp of requiring sheriffs to cooperate with ICE
After six years of trying to force local law enforcement in some of the state’s most populous counties to cooperate with immigration authorities, North Carolina Republicans are on the cusp of passing legislation to do so.
A political battle between GOP state lawmakers and sheriffs in largely Democratic counties — many of whom came into office in 2018 responding to the backlash on the left to the Trump administration’s immigration policies by vowing to limit or end cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — could come to a conclusion during this year’s upcoming legislative session.
Legislation that passed the House last year is expected to be taken up by the Senate when lawmakers return to Raleigh at the end of April. If it becomes law, House Bill 10 will require all 100 sheriffs in the state to notify ICE if they can’t determine the legal status of a person charged with certain high-level offenses. The bill would also require sheriffs to honor requests by ICE to hold people it believes are in the country illegally for up to 48 hours to give federal agents time to take them into custody.
HB 10 was filed quickly after lawmakers convened for last year’s long session, and it passed the House in late March with the support of three Democrats. It languished in the Senate for the rest of the year, but Republicans are ready now to pass the bill and send it to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk, says the bill’s primary sponsor, House Rules Chairman Destin Hall.
Lauren Horsch, a spokeswoman for Senate leader Phil Berger, also told The News & Observer that Berger supports taking up the bill.
Cooper has twice vetoed similar bills passed by the GOP-dominated legislature. This time, as Republicans prepare to act on an issue that, according to many polls, is the top issue of concern for voters, they have a
UNDER EXISTING STATE LAW, SHERIFFS ARE REQUIRED TO TRY TO DETERMINE THE LEGAL STATUS OF PEOPLE THEY ARREST IF THEY’RE CHARGED WITH A FELONY OR FOR IMPAIRED DRIVING.
supermajority in both chambers that overrode Cooper’s veto 19 times last year after going five years without being able to overcome the governor’s veto pen.
Hall says the bill only became necessary after the election in 2018 of sheriffs that campaigned on ending cooperation with ICE.
“Even today, by our count, there’s maybe six or seven sheriffs out of the 100 sheriffs in North Carolina, who don’t voluntarily cooperate with ICE, which means that 90-some sheriffs in our state, they don’t really need this law,” Hall said in an interview last month. “But because of the handful of sheriffs who are not cooperating, we have to pass this bill.”
Opponents of the bill say it will only make the job of keeping communities safe more difficult for local law enforcement. Questions have also been raised about the constitutionality of the requests from ICE that the bill would require sheriffs to honor, known as immigration detainers, and whether the bill encroaches on the authority of local elected officials to set and abide by the policies voters want them to follow.
“The problem with that is, someone who gets picked up in Mecklenburg County, they’re not necessarily going to stay in Mecklenburg County,” Hall said, responding to the question of local authority. “These are folks who obviously don’t respect national borders, they’re not going to stay in one given county.”