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Iced Out
The Pender County Board of Commissioners voted to strike down a resolution for the sheriff’s office to support an Immigration and Customs Enforcement program that grants local officers the authority to perform and aid in federal immigration office duties. The board’s denial came down to who’d pay for it, and the local officials weren’t keen to stretch their limited resources.
The all-Republican board voted 3-1 Tuesday, with one member absent and Chair Randy Burton dissenting, to kill the resolution to support ICE’s 287(g) program.
Republican Pender County Sheriff Alan Cutler told the board he wouldn’t feel comfortable with them approving the resolution as it was worded, which was met with loud applause from a standing-room-only audience. Cutler said his office already collaborates with ICE and plans to continue doing so, and deputies wouldn’t let a violent detainee loose.
“When you get into housing federal inmates,” he said, “we’re not equipped with that right now,” Cutler said he’d be open to a budget discussion on how to pay for the efforts and also emphasized his deputies won’t be conducting any raids at local schools or churches.
It’s not clear exactly how the resolution, which refers to immigrants as aliens, ended up on the county’s agenda. Just 15 agencies in North Carolina have entered into 287(g) agreements.
During his first term, President Donald Trump tried to amp up local law enforcement agencies’ participation in the program. Recruitment stalled under President Joe Biden’s administration but has recently picked up steam under Trump’s latest term.
Many in the Burgaw audience Tuesday aired grievances on the potential human and economic toll of increasing immigration enforcement locally.
“Let’s not even talk about the cruelty to these people. Let’s talk about money,” Hampstead resident Georgia Kurre implored the board. Kurre highlighted the county’s strong farming and building sectors: “Who do you think picks that stuff? Who do you think works on those farms?… Who do you think builds those houses?”
Commissioner Brad George was concerned with how few agencies nationally–135–have entered into the agreements. He cited instances elsewhere where local sheriffs have housed ICE inmates for as long as six months without compensation, taking up jail space and resources. “I don’t think it’s our place to supplement funding to the federal government and to do their job,” George said.
It can take deputies up to 30 minutes to respond to calls in some areas of the expansive county, George said, so he hesitated to add any more responsibilities to their plate.
Chairman Burton said the resolution wouldn’t put the county on the hook to spend money but rather would show support to law enforcement. He invoked the 2024 murder of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old University of Georgia student killed by an immigrant living in the U.S. illegally, prompting some audience members to groan, with one woman exclaiming, “Do your research!”
The degree to which local agencies collaborate with ICE remains an open political question.
Late last year, the General Assembly overrode former Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of legislation that requires local sheriffs to honor ICE’s 48-hour detainment request for individuals arrested for serious crimes whose citizenship can’t be confirmed. The legislation was prompted in part by several Democratic sheriffs in urban counties who said they wouldn’t honor ICE’s request and had constitutional concerns.
Food for Thought
On Tuesday, The New Hanover Community Endowment hosted a lunch for local editors and journalists at its offices in downtown Wilmington. Unlike past events, there was no real agenda—no new grants, strategies, or hires were unveiled. It was, as CEO Dan Winslow suggested, a chance to get past the impersonal institutional facade and get to know each other better.
But, of course, it was a room full of journalists and we did have a few questions, like how the endowment might be preparing to respond to federal funding gaps created by the Trump Administration’s recent flurry of executive orders. (Winslow said, basically, they’re prepared as always to fund good projects.)
I had questions about adjusting to the new administration, specifically the White House’s efforts to end diversity, inclusion, and equity programs. Trump’s orders are already impacting DEI initiatives throughout the federal government, including programs designed to help level the playing field for contractors owned by minorities and women. That has inspired state and local politicians to follow suit, coinciding with increased opposition to DEI in the corporate world and the general public.
So, I asked Winslow how the endowment will deal with that, given that equity—specifically health and social equity—is one of the foundation’s four pillars, and inclusivity is one of its core values. (County commissioners created those pillars five years ago, and while the sale itself was controversial, the pillars didn’t attract much attention.)
Winslow seemed unfazed, saying the endowment would continue to consider equity in all of its work, pointing to the clear disparities in New Hanover County.
“The disparities are not a secret. So that’s the mission,” Winslow said. “If you can narrow that delta, I don’t care what you call it.”
I pointed out that some people care very much what you call it.
“Words are triggering for some people,” Winslow said. “We care more about the actions.”
Even before the new White House administration, the endowment has faced questions about who it serves, and how to balance grants for the most vulnerable people versus those benefitting the broader community. For example, I’ve heard calls for direct subsidies to the poorest residents or giving all county residents, regardless of income, a break on their property tax bill.
For his part, Winslow has previously suggested the endowment will prioritize helping those most in need.
“We know that we will have to give a man a fish, a lot,” Winslow said during a December public meeting. “The people most in need will get most of the value of what we create. That goes without saying.”
During that meeting, Winslow also said he wanted to end intergenerational poverty and rebuild the Black middle class (the latter aspiration was recently removed from the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce’s website, allegedly under pressure from conservatives opposed to DEI).
As Winslow has often noted, high-level funding decisions ultimately rest with the endowment’s board. It remains to be seen whether pushback on DEI—from Trump, local conservatives, or the general public—will alter its course.
In the meantime, Winslow can control who caters meetings and provides the fresh flowers that greet visitors to the office. He said the endowment spends a lot of money on these vendors, and that they want to support businesses owned by minorities and women. Tuesday’s lunch, he noted, was provided by a diverse business (and was pretty good).
“We’re trying to make sure that we’re inclusive [with] how we spend our money,” Winslow said.
The endowment says it wants to host these media get-togethers more often. Next time, we’ll see if inclusivity is still on the menu.
