As is the case every election year, especially when electing a president, ultra-conservative state lawmakers, instead of seeking solutions to the pressing problems afflicting the community, decided to follow partisan propaganda guidelines and push the distant idea that the humanitarian crisis at the border also affects North Carolina. The difference is that now there is a real threat that an anti-immigrant law will be passed.
In late January, about 70 legislators and Republican leaders, led by the president of the state House of Representatives, Tim Moore, issued a letter asking Governor Roy Cooper to issue a law for law enforcement agencies throughout North Carolina to cooperate with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In practice, this law seeks to have local agents perform immigration duties, similar to the controversial 287(g) deportation program. This legislation has been attempted several times in the past and failed. Why the insistence?
History of a Failed Anti-Immigrant Project
In 2006, the George W. Bush Administration experimented with a memorandum of understanding between immigration authorities and local police and sheriff's offices, under section 287(g). With this, immigration, which constitutionally is a matter only for the federal government, passed into the hands of local agencies.
The result was a disaster. Officers began arresting immigrants for absurd offenses like a broken tail light or not obeying a stop sign. They were taken to jail and then deported. An immigrant went to work in the morning but didn't know if he would return home in the afternoon.
Over the years, multiple academic studies have shown that assigning immigration tasks to police agencies creates irreparable distrust between the community and authorities. This made immigrants stop reporting crimes they were victims of, ultimately benefiting real criminals.
In 2018 and 2019, the main counties in North Carolina elected sheriffs who ended these collaborations between ICE and local police agencies.
Since then, ultra-conservative lawmakers, in a clear state of denial, have unsuccessfully, without justification and without legal backing, tried to pass immigration laws that are not within their jurisdiction. The immigration issue legally must be addressed at the federal level, not locally.
Anti-immigrant law: A real threat
In July 2022, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper vetoed a similar anti-immigrant bill, SB-101, which sought to compel state police departments, sheriff's offices, and jails to provide information about certain detainees to immigration authorities.
“This law is only about scoring political points and using fear to divide the people of North Carolina... I know that the current law already allows the state to incarcerate and prosecute dangerous criminals, regardless of their immigration status,” Cooper said when vetoing SB-101, which he deemed “unconstitutional.”
Although Cooper does not support these anti-immigrant laws, today Republican lawmakers in the General Assembly have the votes to override the governor's veto, so there is a real possibility that this clearly electoral maneuver becomes a reality, as has happened in states like Florida and Texas.
Voters must demand that their representatives get to work for the good of the state and stop using their public positions in their macabre attempt to spread baseless fear among the immigrant community in exchange for ultra-conservative votes.