NC House passes bill to require sheriff's departments to work with ICE

On March 28, the N.C. House passed House Bill 10, which would require all sheriffs in the state to comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It passed its first reading in the state Senate the next day.

The listed purpose of the bill is to encourage communication with ICE in identifying illegal immigrants.

It also require compliance with detainer requests from ICE for individuals who have been arrested on criminal charges and who ICE has probable cause to believe are "removable" non-citizens. This would thereby allow the agency time to secure custody transfer.

Furthermore, the bill would require administrators in charge of detention facilities in North Carolina to report annual criminal ICE involvement data to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety.

Gov. Roy Cooper has previously vetoed two similar bills: Senate Bill 101 on July 11, 2022, and House Bill 370 on August 21, 2019.

Cooper said in his veto of H.B. 370 that the bill would weaken law enforcement by requiring them to complete the jobs of federal agents and that the bill was about “scoring partisan political points,” which would further divide the state's population along political lines.

Jon Feere is the current director of investigations for the Center for Immigration Studies. He also served as an immigration advisor to former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and was later as the ICE chief of staff during the Trump administration. 

He said the bill was an important step to ensure law enforcement bodies are in communication with each other as much as possible.

“This is a critical relationship because it is state and local law enforcement that is oftentimes first to come in contact with a criminal alien and when they do, it’s important that information is communicated to federal immigration authorities so they can carry out their responsibilities,” Feere said. 

Alicia Stemper, director of information for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, said in an email statement that sheriff's departments are currently required to ask about the immigration status of anyone charged with a felony or DWI and that this inquiry automatically occurs when fingerprints are taken at the time of the arrest.

Currently, sheriff's departments can opt into the federal 287(g) program, which allows departments to enter an agreement with ICE to receive training on how to identify illegal immigrants in their jails. 

According to the American Immigration Council, an immigration advocacy organization, the 287(g) program has led to widespread racial profiling and can be expensive for local communities.

Feere said that in North Carolina, multiple county sheriff's departments follow the program. The proposed bill, however, would not require further adoption.

The bill said if a sheriff is unable to determine the citizenship status of an individual, they must make a query to ICE — which is within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. If the person in question is not a citizen, custody would be transferred from the holding facility to federal law enforcement.

“One of the major concerns, or at least one of the reasons, why a lot of sheriff’s offices use discretion in when they participate or cooperate with federal authorities, is because they’re afraid of essentially losing trust among especially immigrant communities in regard to their willingness to report crimes,” Rick Su, a UNC School of Law professor who specializes in immigration law, said.

Su said the bill could instill a fear that people would be “tied into a potential immigration screening” if they report a crime, serve as a witness or communicate with the sheriff’s department. 

Transparency and recording of metrics for the public to see how immigration policies are enforced are an important aspect of the bill, Feere said.

But, some community members feel ICE should not be involved with the sheriff's departments at all.

“ICE isn’t solving any problems, and removing the freedom of those sheriff’s offices that do disagree with ICE to not work with them is just going to cause more problems,” John Best, a Chapel Hill resident, said.

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