(The Center Square) – Five North Carolina counties listed as sanctuary jurisdictions in May are not included in Tuesday’s release from the Department of Homeland Security.
The counties of Buncombe, Chatham, Durham, Orange and Watauga had been the only entries in the state-by-state listing. Respectively, the sheriffs are Democrats Quentin Miller, Mike Roberson, Clarence Birkhead, Charles Blackwood and L.D. Hagaman Jr.
Homeland Security, led by Secretary Kristi Noem, made the latest listing on Tuesday. The first was on May 29.
The release says the executive order of second-term Republican President Donald Trump – Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens – requires the publishing of the list of state and local jurisdictions that obstruct enforcement of federal immigration law.
“Sanctuary policies impede law enforcement and put American citizens at risk by design,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. “The Department of Justice will continue bringing litigation against sanctuary jurisdictions and work closely with the Department of Homeland Security to eradicate these harmful policies around the country.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say the “high-profile and worst of the worst” people taken into custody or already removed from the country within the past week include several with ties to North Carolina.
ICE Atlanta arrested Rey Bautista-Osorio, 48, of Mexico on Monday. Federal prosecutors say he’s “been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or cause serious injury in North Carolina.”
On Sunday, ICE Atlanta arrested Jorge Luis De Leon Gabriel, 47, of Mexico. Prosecutors say, “he’s been charged with assaulting a woman in North Carolina.” On Saturday, ICE took Pedro Javier Mejia, 40, of Honduras, into custody. Prosecutors say, “he’s been convicted of three counts of indecent liberties with a child in North Carolina.”
According to published reports using information from the Deportation Data Project, ICE has detained more than 1,600 people in the state between January and June. Mecklenburg County was responsible for 436 of that figure and Wake County 98. Durham (15) was the only county in the top 10 that had been on the sanctuary listing from just over two months ago.
The Center Square has not confirmed the figures.
Two dozen people illegally in America were taken out of Charlotte from March 1-8, says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Eighteen more were sought at the time.
Collectively, charges include 13 aggravated felonies or other violent offenses; three firearms and weapons offenses; two MS-13 gang member affiliation cases; assault on a federal officer; five property crimes; and 11 charges of driving while impaired. Charlotte, population nearly 925,000, is the 14th largest city in America and six of the 24 had active immigration detainers not honored by the county sheriff.
