Veto of The Sheriffs and ICE Cooperation Bill

On August 21st North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper vetoed a bill that would make state sheriffs cooperate with federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement also known as ICE. Cooper said in a statement “This bill, in addition to being unconstitutional, weakens law enforcement in North Carolina by mandating sheriffs to do the job of federal agents, using local resources that could hurt their ability to protect their counties.”(Carolina Journal)

Immigration used to mainly be a federal matter but over time the federal government have started to work with state sheriffs to enforce immigration laws especially through jails which the state sheriffs’ control. When someone is arrested, their name is put into an FBI database which ICE has access to. ICE can use that database to find people who have entered the country illegally and have then detained by the sheriff until ICE can come and arrest them.

This is important because what ICE is doing is illegal and it does overstep their boundaries and it wastes states resources and persuades sheriffs to focus on turning in illegal immigrates rather than to focus on their main job which is to keep citizens save in their county. North Carolina is a weird mix for political conflict, mainly since the sheriffs lean more on a liberal side vs the conservative legislature as well as the current federal government.

Many of the new sheriffs in North Carolina ran for office promising for new jail reforms and new immigration approaches and what ICE is doing goes against for the same things that they’re running for. Also working with ICE discourages immigrants from reporting crimes to local law enforcements and also detainers violate the Constitution, because they ask a sheriff to hold someone who has met conditions for release such as posting bail which is very important.

My opinion on the subject is that I am more concerned about protecting the rights of people who are illegal in this country. Cooper states that spending resources detaining illegals who have been arrested impacts sheriffs’ duties to monitor and protect the communities in North Carolina and I believe that those resources can be focus on better things. I believe that it is wrong to detain people even after they have posted bail and it violates their rights in the Constitution. Any effort at law and order that requires ignoring the Constitution is not an effort at law and order at all.