(The Center Square) – Cooperation by the gubernatorial administration, counties and municipalities, and the state’s public university system campuses would be required and subject to penalty, a proposal in the North Carolina General Assembly says.
The North Carolina Border Protection Act, also known as Senate Bill 153, will also give protection to taxpayer dollars through eligibility assurances for state-funded public benefits such as housing tax credits, child care subsidies and caregiver support. The Office of State Budget and Management, if the bill becomes law, would determine if unauthorized immigrants are receiving such benefits.
The General Assembly on Nov. 20 overturned a gubernatorial veto to require all 100 sheriffs to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The proposal expands on that effort.
The law, on surface, is a mixture of President Donald Trump’s policies for America’s borders and his administration’s creation of the Department of Government Efficiency. Though already prohibited, sanctuary cities still exist and defy state law, said Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, R-Rockingham.
“North Carolinians are seeing the harmful impacts of open-border policies – from dangerous drug trafficking to criminal, illegal immigrants being released from jail to roam our streets freely,” Berger said in a release. “North Carolinians made it clear that they will no longer tolerate sanctuary policies that put them at risk. We must send an equally strong message by requiring Gov. Stein’s administration to cooperate with immigration officials.”
The North Carolina Border Protection Act would instruct memorandums of agreement to be extended to the director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from the state’s law enforcement agencies – Department of Public Safety, Department of Adult Correction, State Highway Patrol, and the State Bureau of Investigation. Each would be lawfully ordered to determine immigration status of any person in custody.
Any county or municipality would have local immunity waived if it creates a sanctuary, and citizens harmed by people illegally in America could sue government entities. The proposal also would prohibit UNC System campuses from creating and adopting policy contrary to cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
The law is being shepherded by Berger and Sens. Warren Daniel, R-Burke, and Buck Newton, R-Wilson. Daniel said from Murphy to Manteo, “impacts of the Biden-era open border policies” are still being felt.
“It’s past time,” Newton said, “for North Carolina cities and counties to be held accountable for harmful sanctuary city policies. We’ve seen families across the country suffer because of these policies and the North Carolina Border Protection Act gives citizens the ability to go after those cities and counties that have for far too long defied state law.”
As of Wednesday morning, the Center for Immigration Studies – an American anti-immigration think tank – did not include North Carolina among 13 states as sanctuaries. In the state, however, it included the counties of Buncombe, Chatham, Durham, Forsyth, Guilford, Mecklenburg, Orange, Wake and Watauga.
Those nine represent each of the five largest cities of Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Durham and Winston-Salem. Fayetteville (sixth), Wilmington (eighth) and Concord (10th) are the only cities of the top 10 by population not included; Cary and High Point round out the top 10.
Democratic Reps. Maria Cervania of Wake County, Pricey Harrison of Guilford County, Deb Butler of New Hanover County and Renee Price of Orange County led sponsorship of Prohibit LEO w/ICE Churches/Schools/Hospitals. The bill would “prohibit law enforcement agencies and officers from participating in immigration enforcement in North Carolina places of religious worship, elementary and secondary schools, and hospitals.”
That bill in the House of Representatives has been parked in the Rules Committee since introduction.
Facing charges in a mass shooting in Chicago, suspected Tren de Aragua gang member Ricardo Padillia-Granadillo of Venezuela was arrested with 10 others in North Carolina this month. Padillia-Granadillo came into the country near El Paso, Texas, on Oct. 1, 2022, and under Biden administration policy was encountered by U.S. Border Patrol and allowed to stay in the country on parole with a promise to appear for an immigration appointment. He didn’t.
Padillia-Granadillo was in possession of a handgun and ammunition. Ten others he was with, all in the country illegally according to ICE, were also arrested.
