Gov. Cooper vetoes bill that would force sheriffs to cooperate with ICE
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a bill Monday that would demand North Carolina sheriffs learn the immigration status of their jails' inmates and detain people who federal agents intend to take into custody.
In his veto message, Cooper wrote the following:
“This law is only about scoring political points and using fear to divide North Carolinians. As the state’s former top law enforcement officer, I know that current law already allows the state to incarcerate and prosecute dangerous criminals regardless of immigration status. This bill is unconstitutional and weakens law enforcement in North Carolina by mandating that sheriffs do the job of federal agents, using local resources that could hurt their ability to protect their counties."
Senate Bill 101, which critics dubbed the "Show Me Your Papers" bill, would have required sheriffs to inform U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement if they cannot determine the legal status of someone charged with homicide, rape, kidnapping, human trafficking or other high-level offenses. It would also have required sheriffs to hold certain individuals if ICE intends to take them into custody.
The American Business Immigration Coalition sent a letter to Cooper, imploring him to veto the bill. The letter, signed by more than 400 business and community leaders and advocates from across the state, talked about the potential economic consequences of alienating immigrant communities.
"An already struggling inflation, cost for goods and vegetables and agricultural work in North Carolina, if we had a bill like this and people decided to start leaving or not going to work because of fear, that would just completely skyrocket more," ABIC's Carolinas Director Yahel Flores said.
Flores said immigrants are the backbone of North Carolina's economy.
The letter stated, "There are more than 800,000 immigrants living in North Carolina, who contribute $6.4 billion annually in local, state, and federal taxes. Immigrant workers compose 53.1% of painters, construction workers, and maintenance workers and 49.7% of agricultural workers in the state of North Carolina. Immigrant business owners provide 151,117 jobs to the people of North Carolina and their firms contribute $24.7 billion in sales to the North Carolina economy."
Additionally, Flores said it's a moral issue that hits close to home for him, as a DACA recipient.
"My family has always been very law-abiding citizens, but when there were issues where, especially here in Forsyth County, there was a lot of tensions between law enforcement, my parents were scared to drive, they were scared to even just report any bad behavior going on in their neighborhood," Flores. "From my personal perspective, I can see how a policy like this can be very ineffective."
Hendersonville immigration attorney George Pappas agrees with Cooper, who claims SB 101 is unconstitutional. He said it's a violation of the Fifth Amendment and a "political gimmick," pointing to several state and federal court decisions that have found parts of ICE's detainer system unconstitutional.
"If you are charged with a crime and it's either dismissed or you've served your time, you are free to go," Pappas said. "You cannot be arrested again because ICE has a civil request to hold you, or because the state wants to hold you after you've completed your sentence or the charges have been dismissed. So, if an undocumented person has been charged with a crime and it has no basis in law and it's been dismissed, they're free to go under the law. What this bill is trying to do is to allow the sheriff to rearrest somebody. That's a violation of due process."
Pappas said it would also ruin trust between communities and their law enforcement agencies, by discouraging victims of crimes from reporting what happened to them, out of fear they'd be arrested themselves due to their status.
"It will destroy community relations between the community and the sheriff, because the sheriff needs the community to prosecute criminals and if they are not receiving calls from the community for assistance, the public will suffer," Pappas said.
Meanwhile, State Sen. Chuck Edwards (R-District 48), a primary sponsor of the bill, made the following statement on Cooper's decision to veto the bill:
"With the stroke of his pen, Gov. Cooper just gave Sanctuary Sheriffs permission to shield an illegal immigrant who rapes or murders a North Carolinian. Keeping violent criminals off our streets should be a shared priority, but this veto proves that Gov. Cooper isn’t interested in increasing public safety if it goes against his liberal donors' wishes," Edwards said.
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Here in the mountains, two prominent local sheriffs have taken very different public stances on cooperation with ICE.
A spokesperson for the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office said it has never had a 287(g) agreement, which permits the delegation of certain immigration enforcement functions to state and local law enforcement agencies. Furthermore, in 2019, Sheriff Quentin Miller announced that Buncombe County would no longer hold detainees for ICE.
In a statement in response to Cooper vetoing SB 101, Miller said the following:
“ICE detainers are not valid criminal warrants. A warrant signed by a judicial official is necessary for an individual to be detained at the Buncombe County Detention Facility."
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On the other hand, the Henderson County Sheriff's Office does have a 287(g) agreement.
When News 13 reached out to HCSO for comment, its spokesperson pointed to a 2019 news conference Sheriff Lowell Griffin did when the 287(g) agreement was renewed, saying his stance on the topic has not changed.
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In that news conference, Griffin said, "The 287(g) program allows for a law enforcement agency to quickly identify past encounters and obtain records of an arrested criminal alien."
He went on to say that the process of placing an immigration detainer takes place only after a person has been arrested for a crime that was committed in Henderson County and then committed to the county's detention facility. He added, no deputy has any authority to question or take enforcement actions concerning a person's immigration status outside of the walls of the county's detention facility. During that news conference, Griffin also spoke about the importance of bridging the gap between law enforcement and immigrant communities.
This is not the first time a bill like this has hit the governor's desk; Cooper vetoed a similar bill in 2019.
