Charlotte Democrat joins GOP in supporting bill bolstering ICE cooperation law
A GOP bill that seeks to bolster the state law requiring sheriffs to cooperate more closely with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved forward on Tuesday with the support of a Charlotte Democrat.
The N.C. House voted 70-45 to approve House Bill 318, a measure spearheaded by Republican Speaker Destin Hall. It builds on the law enacted last year by adding a new notification requirement to the process that currently takes place when ICE submits a temporary detention request to sheriffs and other local law enforcement.
The vote fell almost entirely along party lines, with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats voting against the bill except for one, Rep. Carla Cunningham.
Cunningham’s support for the bill stood out as several other Democrats from Mecklenburg County spoke during the debate on Tuesday afternoon to express their strong opposition to it.
Cunningham, one of a few swing votes in the House, previously voted for the GOP legislation last year that required sheriffs to comply with ICE detainers. She also voted to override former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the bill, helping Republicans enact it into law.
Cunningham expects Meck sheriff to cooperate with ICE
During Tuesday’s debate, Cunningham spoke about the need to address violent crime in Mecklenburg County. She also mentioned the surge in overdose deaths, and referenced the county’s report from February that overdose deaths among Black and Hispanic residents of Mecklenburg have increased by 200% since 2019.
“That 200% are people that look like me,” Cunningham said. “They’re my grandkids, your grandkids that’s associating with it.”
Other Mecklenburg Democrats, all of whom voted against the bill, pushed back against the GOP’s efforts to increase cooperation by local law enforcement with ICE.
Rep. Jordan Lopez, a first-term Democrat also from Charlotte, spoke “in staunch and immovable opposition” to the bill, questioning the effectiveness of the detainer process, and why local law enforcement should be involved in federal immigration enforcement.
“As somebody who believes in the concept of federalism, why are we doing the federal government’s job for them?” Lopez asked.
Another Charlotte Democrat who was elected in November, Rep. Aisha Dew, echoed concerns that have been raised by Democrats in the past that the law could lead to instances of racial profiling. She shared her own experiences of being “randomly stopped” at airports in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Dew also said she doesn’t believe that cooperating with ICE will make communities safer.
“As a person who has unfortunately lost entirely too many people to violent crimes, it is not a game and it is not a joke,” Dew said.
Responding to the argument that local law enforcement shouldn’t cooperate with federal authorities like ICE, Hall said during the floor debate that any violent crimes being committed by people who are in the country illegally shouldn’t be tolerated.
“That’s a tough pill to swallow when you lose a loved one anytime to violence or otherwise,” Hall said. “Imagine how much more difficult that is when you know it was perpetrated by somebody who should have never been here in the first place.”
Bill filed in response to dispute between McFadden and ICE
Hall introduced HB 318 in March in response to a dispute he said he was following between Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden and ICE.
The dispute began in January, when McFadden said ICE hadn’t been communicating with his deputies and failed to take custody of a Honduran national who had been charged with domestic violence. Under HB 10, sheriffs must hold someone subject to an ICE detainer for up to 48 hours to give the agency time to take custody.
ICE spokesman Lindsay Williams previously told the Charlotte Observer that the agency requires a notification, either a phone call or an email, 48 hours before individuals held on detainers are released from jail.
Williams said that some sheriffs in the state already make that phone call to ICE, in addition to the initial notice the agency receives when local law enforcement tells ICE they’ve booked someone in their jails whose citizenship or legal status can’t be determined.
McFadden responded that HB 10, as it was written and passed last year, did not require him to make that additional phone call.
He also told the Charlotte Observer that the main issue for his office had been a lack of communication by ICE, and said that once he receives a detainer request from ICE, the agency should be ready to take custody within 48 hours, as the law requires.
“If it requires the sheriff to do his duty, and align with the federal government, with ICE, I expect him to do that,” Cunningham said Tuesday. “Because that’s protecting my community too. My children too.”
Hall hopes Stein will sign the bill into law
After Tuesday’s voting session, Hall told The Charlotte Observer he hasn’t discussed HB 318 with Gov. Josh Stein, but he hopes Stein will sign it into law should it reach his desk.
Hall said that when he first started working on the issue of requiring cooperation with ICE in 2019, “part of me thought even Cooper may not veto it, because it’s a pretty clear issue.”
“It’s pretty clear that folks in this state want sheriffs cooperating with ICE, and we knew Cooper would probably veto it, but you know, again, we weren’t sure,” Hall said. “With Stein, who knows? I hope he signs it. I think there’s a chance. I haven’t discussed it with him directly, so I don’t know.”
While Hall and Stein haven’t had a conversation about the bill, Hall’s office told The Observer that both offices have had “staff-level discussions” about the bill, which didn’t happen with similar ICE-cooperation bills when Cooper was governor.
Morgan Hopkins, a spokeswoman for Stein, told The Observer that the governor’s office and the speaker’s office “are in regular staff level conversations about a number of bills.”
“We look forward to continued conversation with members of the General Assembly on a number of issues,” Hopkins said.
Republicans previously controlled supermajorities capable of overriding vetoes in both chambers, but lost total control in the House by one seat in November. That means that with any legislation that gets vetoed this session, Republicans will need at least one Democrat to join them in an override vote.
Hall told The Observer he hasn’t talked with Cunningham about a potential override, but said her comments during the floor debate show that “she seems to be pretty passionate about the issue.”
“Based on her comments today, I think she probably will vote to override, but I haven’t spoken to her about that yet directly,” Hall said.
Before GOP lawmakers can send HB 318 to Stein, it will have to pass the Senate.
Republicans in that chamber passed their own immigration enforcement bill earlier this year that would expand ICE cooperation to state agencies and require the Departments of Public Safety and Adult Correction, as well as the State Highway Patrol and Bureau of Investigation to enter cooperation agreements with the federal agency.
This story was originally published April 29, 2025 at 8:43 PM with the headline "Charlotte Democrat joins GOP in supporting bill bolstering ICE cooperation law."
