Wake GOP sheriff candidate reverses stance on immigration. ‘Too late,’ say activists.

The topic of immigration law enforcement continues to play a role in the 2022 race for Wake County sheriff, with one candidate reversing his stance on a contentious policy.

Former Sheriff Donnie Harrison, who won the Republican primary May 17, announced this week that if re-elected, he would no longer look to reinstating the 287(g) program, a policy that let Wake County sheriff’s deputies act as immigration agents.

The program screened the immigration status of foreign-born people and non-citizens who were arrested and in jail, as part of an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Harrison’s campaign issued a statement Monday calling the 287(g) program “obsolete.” He also said he would no longer honor ICE detainer requests without a warrant. Detainers let local law enforcement hold people wanted by federal immigration agents for up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released from jail.

Harrison joined the 287(g) program in 2007 during his 16-year tenure as sheriff and defended his use of it as recently as March of this year during a candidates forum.

His reversal is noteworthy, as Harrison lost his 2018 re-election bid in part because of his adoption of 287(g). Voters rallied around his opponent, Democrat Gerald Baker, who vowed to end collaboration with ICE. Baker’s campaign was boosted by support from Latino and immigrant advocacy organizations.

Harrison repeatedly refused to stop the program in meetings with constituents.

This included the American Civil Liberties Union, which aired ads saying Harrison was “tearing families apart and stoking racial tensions.”

Baker did away with the program shortly after taking office. He lost a July runoff election against Willie Rowe, however, who will face Harrison in the general election.

Harrison’s shift means he and his Democratic opponent are now aligned on a key issue. They will participate in a forum Sept. 7 in Raleigh organized by advocacy group El Centro Hispano and Enlace Latino NC, a nonprofit news site.

Cooperating with ICE

In a Wednesday meeting with Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis and several North Carolina sheriffs, state Rep. Destin Hall, a Caldwell County Republican, said forcing local sheriffs to cooperate with ICE would be a top legislative priority for the GOP if they win a veto-proof majority, The Charlotte Observer reported.

Previous Republican bills aimed at that goal have failed under Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who recently struck down a relevant bill in July. In vetoing Senate Bill 101, the governor said it was “only about scoring political points and using fear to divide North Carolinians.”

Republicans need to gain three seats in the state House and two in the state Senate in November for a veto-proof majority.

Harrison’s immigration enforcement reversal

In an interview with The News & Observer on Wednesday, Harrison cited the development of Raleigh/Wake City-County Bureau of Identification (CCBI) as fulfilling his desire to do comprehensive background checks and identity verification of people processed in Wake County’s two jails.

“After getting beat and coming back, and looking into it ... I did my homework,” Harrison said. “After looking into it, I said ‘Shoot, I don’t need to go anywhere. Here it is, right here.’”

Harrison says CCBI will let him screen arrested individuals for outstanding warrants and their identities.

Asked why he said in the March forum that he would consider reinstating 287(g), he said his campaign was still “digging into it.”

He doesn’t regret adopting the program, he said, and contends it allowed his office to hold detainees with outstanding warrants who gave an alias and committed crimes while being in the United States illegally.

“At the time, I could not get the information that I needed (from CCBI),” he said. “I could not get the technology I needed.”

The program is on the decline across law enforcement agencies nationally, according to the American Immigration Council, due to concerns about its impact on law enforcement and community relations, among other reasons.

The sheriff’s office has said 1,483 people were deported from Wake County after being processed through the 287(g) program between 2013 and 2017, The N&O previously reported.

The program was costly. Wake County spent at least $1.7 million on the program in 2016, according to Felicia Arriaga, an Appalachian State University professor who studied the program in North Carolina.

A 2010 report from UNC found that Mecklenburg County spent $5.3 million on the program and that Alamance County had spent $4.8 million on it.

As for ICE detainers, Harrison previously honored ICE requests to hold an arrested individual after their scheduled release when ICE officials had probable cause to believe the individual could be deported.

ICE did not need a judge’s or magistrate’s order to ask that a person be held in jail beyond when they would normally be released, such as by posting bail.

Harrison now says he will honor detainers only when a judicial warrant is issued against an individual.

Democrat Rowe’s position on 287(g)

Rowe, who served in the Wake sheriff’s office for 28 years, opposed 287(g) early on in the race — but for different reasons.

“I will not participate in the program because I believe it’s a violation of the Fourth Amendment when it comes to due process,” Rowe told The N&O. “We’re saying that 287(g) and detainers are not appropriate. It’s causing people to live in fear, and this can’t be tolerated.”

Rowe said he will work with county agencies to prevent the release of people arrested in Wake County who are deemed to be dangerous and a threat to the community, regardless of immigration status.

In a joint statement, the ACLU of North Carolina, in addition to political advocacy nonprofits La Fuerza NC, Advance Carolina and Emancipate Votes, called Harrison’s policy shift “too late.”

“Agreements under 287(g) are just one way that sheriffs collaborate with ICE, and in fact, a sheriff can help ICE deport people even without a formal contract,” the groups said.

In a separate statement, La Fuerza NC, the political nonprofit arm of the advocacy group El Pueblo, expressed skepticism of Harrison’s platform.

The group claims that Harrison damaged the trust of the Latino community by deporting immigrants who were detained for minor violations or had no criminal background.

“The picture Harrison paints if he is elected will continue to have ICE in it,” the statement said. “Making our communities safer means cutting ties with ICE completely.”