NC lawmakers resume push to force sheriffs to work with federal immigration agents

A bill forcing North Carolina sheriffs to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE agents, moved forward again at the state legislature on Tuesday — where it faced vocal opposition from Democratic lawmakers, civil rights activists, and pro-immigrant groups.

The Republican-controlled state legislature is expected to quickly pass the bill, which conservative lawmakers say is needed to help improve public safety. Republicans passed similar bills in 2019 and 2022. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed those bills, and Republicans couldn’t get enough votes to override the vetoes. But the GOP now holds a veto-proof supermajority in both legislative chambers, so the bill is more likely to become law this time.

"It seems to be commonsense that law enforcement should cooperate with one another," said Rep. Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, the bill's sponsor. "And their first goal should be public safety."

The issue in question is what should happen when someone gets arrested but then released from the county jail — perhaps they posted bond or had their charges dismissed — but then ICE contacts the local sheriff to ask them to keep them behind bars despite the order to release them, citing a belief that they might be in the country illegally.

Such requests from ICE are optional — and, critics say, unconstitutional — but most sheriffs comply with them anyway. That changed somewhat in 2018 when Democratic sheriff candidates swept the elections for the state's largest urban counties for the first time. Several of them campaigned explicitly on promises not to cooperate with ICE, which, at the time, was under the administration of then-President Donald Trump, a Republican.

Should sheriffs have a choice?

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina reacted to the Democratic victories in 2018 by introducing this proposal to force those sheriffs to work with ICE, even though the sheriffs themselves said they believed working with ICE harms public safety in their communities.

The sheriffs in Mecklenburg, Durham and Wake counties, as well as others, have all said they believe local immigrants will be more willing to work with law enforcement — such as by serving as witnesses against criminals operating in those communities — if they're not also worried that approaching local deputies might end up with ICE asking questions about them or their families.

Several local Hispanic residents and activists were at Tuesday's hearing to underscore that position. One woman spoke of her years-long fear of police officers, forged when she was growing up in Wilson County with an undocumented mother who could've been deported and left her without any parents. Another woman, Veronica Aguilar, from the advocacy group El Pueblo, said the sheriffs are correct that working with ICE will make Hispanic people less likely to come forward to help report or solve crimes.

"By forcing sheriffs to cooperate with ICE, it will make people in our community distrust law enforcement even more — and prefer not to report crimes or cooperate with police investigations, for fear of deportation," Aguilar said.

Republican Sen. Danny Britt of Robeson County said he hears those concerns. He acknowledged that widespread deportation of immigrants would harm the state's economy, particularly in eastern North Carolina, where he lives. Britt, as well as several of the people opposed to the bill, said immigrant labor is key to the construction and agriculture industries. But he supports the bill because it wouldn't apply to people detained on minor offenses like traffic violations, he said — only more serious crimes. That should give some amount of solace to hard-working immigrants who are just trying to find work, Britt said.

Sejal Zota, a Durham lawyer with extensive experience in immigration law, said the fear of ICE makes sense even for people living in the U.S. legally. In less than a decade, she told lawmakers Tuesday, ICE has mistakenly deported more than 1,500 U.S. citizens. She added that lawsuits over abuses and constitutional violations, in the process, could easily target sheriffs and their local county governments.

"This bill exposes sheriffs to a significant risk of financial liability, and this bill cannot insulate them from that," she said.

But one North Carolina sheriff doesn't mind. Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page, a Republican, is an enthusiastic supporter of the bill. He said he'd work with ICE when needed and believes the other 99 sheriffs in the state shouldn't have the choice not to do the same.

"It's about protecting America," Page said. "It's about protecting our state and protecting our citizens. I believe as [the] sheriff in Rockingham County for 26 years, that when we remove criminal offenders from our community, we keep our community safe."