The state of North Carolina currently has six counties that have voted themselves migrant sanctuaries, where local officials are forbidden to cooperate with federal ICE officials who request “detainers” of migrants already in custody. Those counties — along with their principal cities — are: Buncombe (Asheville), Durham (Durham), Forsyth (Winston-Salem), Mecklenburg (Charlotte), Orange (Chapel Hill), and Wake (Raleigh).
The sanctuaries will not last much longer if the Republican-dominated General Assembly has anything to say about it. House Bill 10, which would require all sheriffs in the state to cooperate with ICE officials, was approved last week by the Senate Committee on Judiciary. Already, more than 90 sheriffs in the state cooperate willingly, with only those from the counties listed above refusing. At the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, the House sponsor, Rep. Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) said the following:
As everyone knows, there’s a small number of sheriffs, probably somewhere around 10 or so now, who don’t honor ICE detainers. And in fact, in many cases, according to folks at ICE and others, some sheriffs simply don’t even communicate with ICE at all. It is a common-sense bill. I’ve been dealing with this issue now for five or six years, and it still, to me, is amazing that we even have to have a bill like this. It seems to me to be common sense that law enforcement should cooperate with one another and their first goal should be public safety.
The bill would require county sheriffs to cooperate with ICE only in the case of illegals arrested for serious crimes, not for lesser offenses such as traffic violations. Sen. Danny Britt (R-Robeson) emphasized in his remarks that the law “will not impact folks who are stopped for minor traffic offenses.” He continued:
Without those good hard-working folks in eastern North Carolina, the agriculture industry would shut down, the construction industry would shut down. That’s not what this bill does. This deals with violent offenders who have been deported for violent acts. And I’m thankful that they’ve come forward with this bill once again and hope that we get across the finish line this time.
Britt referred to the fact that the bill had been passed previously, in 2022, by both houses but had been vetoed by the state’s Democrat governor, Roy Cooper. A gubernatorial veto is certain to happen again, but this time the bill’s Republican supporters believe that they now have the votes to override.
For more, see the Carolina Journal.