Racism, or public safety? Bill forcing sheriffs to work with ICE divides NC lawmakers
Sheriffs in North Carolina currently don’t have to work with federal immigration officials to help deport unauthorized immigrants who have been accused, but not necessarily convicted, of a crime.
But a bill that passed the North Carolina Senate Thursday would force them to do so.
“We are a law-abiding nation, a law-abiding society,” said Republican Sen. Chuck Edwards of Henderson County, the bill’s primary sponsor. “And it’s unfortunate that we are at a point now where the elected law enforcement officers, the sheriffs in many counties, are choosing what laws they want to enforce.”
Opponents of the bill said it would violate the rights of crime victims. They will never get their day in court against someone who abused them, said Democratic Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed of Charlotte, if that person is deported before standing trial. Plus, he said, the person who was deported also will be able to avoid getting a criminal record.
“It helps criminal defendants evade prosecution for state crimes, and it blocks justice for victims of crime here in North Carolina,” he said.
Opponents of the bill also said it could lead to an increase in crime, if people in immigrant communities are too scared to call the cops for fear of being deported themselves. And they pointed out numerous times that the bill has white Republican lawmakers, largely from rural areas, targeting Black Democratic sheriffs in North Carolina’s biggest counties.
“I personally know what it means to be stopped for driving while Black,” said Democratic Sen. Paul Lowe of Winston-Salem. “I’ve had that experience more than once. I see this as profiling. Now, maybe that’s not the intent. But for me that’s what it looks like.”
In the 2018 elections, Democratic voters elected Black sheriffs in all of North Carolina’s eight largest counties for the first time ever. Those sheriffs then began pulling out of partnerships with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, so in 2019 Republican lawmakers passed a bill similar to this one. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed it, though, so now the legislature is on its way to passing the latest version. With its passage in the Senate Thursday it heads to the House, which also has a Republican majority.
Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker is one of those who doesn’t work with ICE if they ask him to keep holding people in the county jail who should otherwise be let go.
“You’ve got legislators from a different part of the state here trying to force me to do something even the federal government can’t do,” Baker said in an interview Thursday.
He also spoke at a news conference the ACLU organized with immigrant advocates outside the Legislative Building in downtown Raleigh.
“It is quite clear to me what this legislation is all about,” he said at the press conference. “It is about a group of legislators and lawmakers who are choosing to use legislation to try to continue to cause racial divide and separation, racial profiling, and injustice, just to name a few.”
Edwards, however, bristled at the accusations of racism — particularly after Lowe’s pointed comments, although Lowe later said he wasn’t calling any individual lawmakers racist.
“I certainly feel that here on the North Carolina Senate floor, I was called a racist,” Edwards said. “And I can assure you that is not the motivation of this bill.”
Republican Sen. Norm Sanderson of Pamlico County said there’s no racial profiling even possible in the bill because it only deals with people who have already been arrested — not who are just going about their daily lives.
He also downplayed arguments that opponents of the bill have made, that sheriffs should be able to create their own local policies based on what their constituents support.
“Constituents are not in the General Assembly and do not get to make laws,” he said. “We make laws.”
The political math on veto overrides have changed somewhat since the 2019 veto. Republicans flipped several seats in the House in the 2020 elections but lost one in the Senate. Republicans have not had a veto-proof supermajority since the 2018 “Blue Wave” elections, but some Democratic lawmakers have been known to occasionally side against the governor and with their GOP counterparts.
Sanctuary cities bill
The day before the Senate passed the ICE bill, the House passed a different but related bill that would allow anyone in North Carolina to sue a city or county government that they suspected of having “sanctuary” policies for immigrants in the country without legal authorization.
The NC Insider reported that while Republicans made few statements about that bill before voting in favor of it, Democrats spoke out against it at length.
“This is a very poorly written bill, trying to solve a problem we don’t have to solve,” said Rep. Abe Jones, a Wake County Democrat and former judge, who noted that there are no sanctuary cities in North Carolina.
Previously the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. George Cleveland of Onslow County, said that while there are no official sanctuary cities here, “actions are being taken that go in that vein.”
Opponents of the bill say it will cost taxpayers significant amounts of money defending lawsuits that aren’t based in reality. Supporters, however, say it’s necessary for public safety and to ensure no local officials violate federal immigration laws.
On Thursday one of the immigrant advocates who came to oppose the ICE bill also spoke out against the sanctuary cities bill.
“It is the perfect piece of legislation for racial discrimination because it doesn’t require people to show damages for how they’re affected” by immigrants or immigration policies, said Maria Gonzales of Raleigh, speaking through a translator.
“What will happen is that they’re just going to throw away funds that are excessive, and monetary resources, when all of these resources could be allocated to invest in health and education,” she said.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Pandora, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Megaphone or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 5:20 PM.
