NC House of Representatives passes bill requiring sheriffs to cooperate with ICE

North Carolina sheriffs would be required to inform and cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after charging someone with certain high-level offenses if the person’s legal status cannot be determined, according to legislation that passed the North Carolina House Tuesday.

House Bill 10, a new version of similar bills passed by GOP lawmakers in recent years that were subsequently vetoed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, was approved by lawmakers with 71 votes to 44. Three Democrats — Reps. Tricia Cotham, Cecil Brockman and Michael Wray — joined Republicans in supporting the bill.

It now heads to the state Senate, which is expected to again send the bill to Cooper, who blocked its previous iteration last summer.

After winning several seats in the 2022 election, however, Republicans are now just one vote shy of being able to circumvent Cooper. Soon after the House passed HB 10 Tuesday, the Senate held its first override vote of the session on a package of gun rights bills that Cooper vetoed Friday.

A similar effort to bypass Cooper on the ICE bill could follow if it reaches his desk and he decides to block it again.

Rep. Destin Hall, a Lenoir Republican and one of the bill’s primary sponsors, said the vast majority of the state’s 100 sheriffs already voluntarily do what HB 10 would require them to do. The main reason the bill is needed, he said, is the small number of sheriffs in primarily urban counties such as Wake and Mecklenburg, where sheriffs have vowed not to cooperate with ICE.

“There are a small number of sheriffs in our state, who have completely stopped working with ICE, in many cases, completely stopped communicating with ICE in any meaningful way, regarding illegal aliens who have been charged with crimes in our state,” Hall said before the vote.

What HB 10 would require of sheriffs

Under HB 10, sheriffs would be required to notify ICE if they can’t determine a person’s legal status after charging them with certain drug felonies, homicide, rape or other sex offenses, kidnapping and abduction, human trafficking, certain assault offenses or violations of a domestic violence protective order.

Sheriffs would also be required to temporarily hold people for whom ICE issues an immigrant detainer. ICE uses detainers to inform local and state law enforcement agencies that it intends to take custody of people it has probable cause to believe are “removable non-citizens,” according to the agency’s website.

Under HB 10, sheriffs would be required to take people who are subjects of a detainer before a state judge, who would order the person to be held for 48 hours or until ICE either takes custody of them or rescinds the detainer — whichever comes first.

Hall said that in most cases, ICE takes custody well before 48 hours elapse, sometimes even before 24 hours. He also pointed out that the agency has been issuing detainers since the 1950s, and that most sheriffs have been used to complying with them for a long time.

“I’ve said it many times before, and I thoroughly believe that the policy of refusing to cooperate with ICE makes absolutely no sense,” Hall said. “It is putting partisan politics ahead of public safety. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. This bill will put an end to that.”

Lawmaker shares personal experience

Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, several progressive advocacy groups from across the state called on Cotham and Wray to vote against the bill.

Stefania Arteaga, co-executive director of the Carolina Migrant Network, said in a statement that HB 10 represented “an attack on our democracy,” and was a “slap in the face” of voters who have rejected local cooperation with ICE.

The Carolina Migrant Network and Equality NC were two of more than 120 local, regional and national groups that had urged Cotham and Wray to vote “no” on the bill and help sustain a possible veto from Cooper, if the bill is sent to his desk again, according to a release from the various organizations.

A number of other Democrats spoke against the bill during debate on the House floor. Rep. Maria Cervania of Wake County shared her own experience and told lawmakers about an incident a few years ago, when she was pulled over by a sheriff’s deputy on the highway.

Cervania said she was returning from church when she was pulled over for driving with an out-of-state license plate, which she told the deputy she hadn’t been able to replace because was in the middle of moving at the time. She said that when the deputy came back after looking at her license and registration, he asked her where she was born — the “last question” she said she expected.

She told him she was born in Oakland, California, and even mentioned that her father had served in the U.S. Navy, but that he kept asking where she was born.

Rep. Brenden Jones, a Columbus County Republican, briefly interrupted Cervania at this point and said her story was “intriguing” but not “germane” to the bill, and asked that she keep her remarks focused on the bill.

Cervania continued and said the deputy told her that if she didn’t tell him the truth, he’d take her to the “nearest ICE detention center” and ensure that she was deported.

“This persisted for three hours on that side of that highway,” Cervania said. “And it was the scariest experience I ever experienced in my life.”

She said she wanted to share the story with her fellow lawmakers to illustrate the point that “mistakes can be made” and that they happen “more than you think.”