Update: The bill passed the House along party lines June 4. Because the versions passed by the House and Senate differ slightly, the legislation won't immediately be sent to Democratic Gov. Josh Stein. A conference committee will craft the final version of the bill.
Legislation that would further crack down on immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally is advancing in North Carolina.
Senate Bill 153 — the "North Carolina Border Protection Act" — attempts to advance President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda.
The Republican bill would deepen the state's relationship with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, make "sanctuary cities" liable for crimes committed in their jurisdictions and restrict universities from defying ICE.
It's being taken up by House committees this week after passing the Senate along party lines March 4.
House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, supports it.
"Both the Senate and the House, on our side of the aisle anyway, feel like we need to do all we can to assist with the Trump administration's immigration policies," Hall told reporters Tuesday.
Hall was one of the key lawmakers behind House Bill 10, which the General Assembly passed last year.
H.B. 10 requires all sheriffs cooperate with ICE. Deputies must check the immigration status of their detainees, and hold those in the U.S. illegally in jail for up to 48 hours, giving ICE agents time to take them into federal custody.
"We need to take [H.B. 10] a step further," Sen. Buck Newton, R-Wilson, said Tuesday during a committee meeting for this year's proposal.
Here's what S.B. 153 would do:
- Require state law enforcement agencies also cooperate with ICE by signing 287(g) agreements, named after the federal law authorizing them. That would bring state law enforcement agencies in line with what H.B. 10 requires of sheriff's offices.
- Allow communities with sanctuary ordinances to be sued by victims of crimes committed by illegal immigrants.
- Bar campuses in the University of North Carolina system from obstructing immigration efforts.
- Ban the provision of benefits and housing assistance to people in the county illegally.
Sanctuary city liability
The provision waiving governmental immunity in sanctuary jurisdictions got the most scrutiny from House Judiciary Committee members.
Sanctuary cities are places where law enforcement do not help federal immigration officials with deportations. They are also under public pressure from the Trump administration.
The Department of Homeland Security described five North Carolina counties — Buncombe, Chatham, Durham, Orange and Watauga — as noncompliant sanctuary jurisdictions on a list released last week. (U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, for the record, also counts Mecklenburg, Wake, Guilford and Forsyth.)
Rep. Charles Smith, D-Cumberland, said S.B. 153 was a dangerous overreach.
"It's really just an unprecedented expansion of the idea of vicarious liability, holding an entity or person liable for someone else's actions," Smith said.
As an example, he said, if a pest control employee assaults a homeowner on the job, the employer can't be sued. But if S.B. 153 passed, and that employee was in the country illegally, the homeowner's city could be sued.
"This could extend to any undocumented person in the county or city," Smith said.
"That's kind of the point," Newton replied.
"You've got localities inviting these people, and nobody knows who they are," he continued. "Many of them are not nice people, and so they're asking for it. And the victims of these crimes, whether it be property or personal, they don't have anybody else to turn to."
The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina criticized the bill as "hostile legislation" and an "attack on our immigrant neighbors."
Tuesday afternoon, S.B. 153 was referred to the House Committee on Rules, the last step before a floor vote. The Rules Committee is poised to consider it Wednesday morning.
The House passed its own legislation containing some similar provisions in April. It's yet to be taken up in the Senate.
