RALEIGH — A bill passed by the North Carolina House Tuesday would shore up requirements for local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration officials.
House Bill 318, first introduced in March by House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Granite Falls), aims to modify existing laws regarding individuals in custody who are subject to immigration detainers. The bill covers arrests for felonies and an amendment added Class A1 misdemeanors such as sexual battery and battery on an unborn person.
“Make no mistake—when illegal immigrants commit violent crimes and are then released back into our communities, it’s the law-abiding families of North Carolina who pay the price,” Hall said in a press release. “Sheriffs who refuse to cooperate with ICE are putting the public at risk. This bill ensures that sheriffs do their job: protect citizens, not shield criminals.”
The bill passed by a vote of 70-45, with only one Democrat voting in favor: Rep. Carla Cunningham (Mecklenburg).
After passage, the House Republican Press account on X took aim at Democrat opposition to the bill, writing, “Based on today’s debate on the Criminal Illegal Alien Enforcement Act, it’s clear Democrats haven’t learned any lessons from the 2024 election. The American people have spoken clearly-if you’re an illegal alien and you commit crimes, you gotta go.”
The House Republican Caucus account also called out specific Democrats, offering to pay for them to fly to El Salvador to meet MS-13 gang members, a clear reference to Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen’s trip to the county to meet with MS-13 gang member Kilmar Garcia
Under the bill, when a prisoner is subject to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer and administrative warrant, the bill requires that the individual be brought before a judicial official who can order continued detention.
The legislation mandates that facility administrators notify ICE “no later than two hours after the time” a prisoner would normally be released,” as well as the exact date and time when the prisoner’s 48-hour holding period will end.
The original bill’s language required holding prisoners for 48 hours from “receipt of the detainer and administrative warrant.” The bill substitute approved by the House Judiciary Committee changed that line to “the time the prisoner would otherwise be released.”
Rep. Marcia Morey (D-Durham) said she opposed the bill because it was not about “safety.”
“The problem is there are legal issues of due process,” said Morey, who objected to the 48 hours provision. “A warrant is not a detainer in the eyes of a law. A detainer is not an official document signed by a judge. It is a detainer request by ICE.”
Multiple other Democrats also spoke in opposition, also claiming the bill was not about safety but instead about violating the “rights” of illegal aliens to “due process.”
Cunningham defended the bill, noting she had voted for similar bills in the past. She went on to talk about people committing crimes getting out within hours. She also brought up drugs, like fentanyl, stating, “it’s in our communities and it’s killing our children.”
“If we don’t continue to try to protect our communities in any way we can…That’s our responsibility,” said Cunningham. ” That’s all our grandkids, all our children. People are taking our children from us. And if it requires the sheriff to do his duty and align with the federal government, with ICE, I expect him to do that. Because that’s protecting my community too. My children too.”
The measure introduces new pretrial release procedures whereby judicial officials would be required to attempt to verify a defendant’s legal residency or citizenship status through questioning, document examination or both methods.
If officials cannot determine legal status, they must set standard pretrial release conditions and commit the individual to a detention facility where they will be fingerprinted. An ICE query on the individual must be made and the prisoner is held for two hours and then either be released if no detainer is issued or processed under the detainer procedures if one is received.
Under the approved bill version, this verification would apply to individuals charged with any felony, certain Class A1 misdemeanors, violations of domestic violence protective orders and impaired driving offenses. The expanded list would include burglaries, theft, embezzlement, fraud, forgery and drunk driving.
Law enforcement officers would receive immunity protection from civil or criminal liability for actions taken in compliance with these requirements. The effective date was also changed from Dec. 1 to Oct. 1.
Prior to floor debate on the bill, Hall mentioned certain sheriff’s were not following House Bill 10, which was enacted during the 2023-24 legislative session, and the current bill will “fix any perceived loopholes that may exist.”
Hall also pointed out that 95 out of the state’s 100 sheriff’s cooperate with ICE voluntarily. While not naming him, Hall’s comments included an example of an illegal alien who was arrested for domestic violence by Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden, who has consistently refused to honor ICE detainers.
“The sheriff then received the ICE detainer, but ignored it, let that person walk out, that person went right back, committed another offense against that same victim,” said Hall. “This time in order to arrest them, CMPD had to essentially do a nine hour standoff with that person. And that’s one example of the hundreds and hundreds of cases each day and certainly each month in this state where folks receive ICE detainers at local jails.”
In March, ICE made 24 arrests in Charlotte, including at least two MS-13 gang members, and McFadden’s office was singled out by ICE for not honoring detainers.
“Of these criminal aliens, six had active immigration detainers which the Charlotte Mecklenburg Sheriff’s Office had not honored. There are 18 additional targeted aliens still at large who also had detainers that were not honored,” per the ICE press release. “ICE has been unable to locate those individuals, and they remain at large and pose a potential danger to the community. These aliens could have been safely and efficiently transferred into ICE custody if their detainers had been honored.”
Spectrum News reported McFadden responded to ICE by saying he had to “follow the law.”
“We do not honor civil detainers because they are not signed by a judge. I must follow the law,” McFadden said. “If a judge orders me to release someone, I cannot legally detain them.”
McFadden has made statements claiming that under House Bill 10, he doesn’t have to contact ICE to notify them about illegal immigrant prisoner releases. Yet, in his remarks to Spectrum News, McFadden complained that ICE didn’t pick up 163 illegal immigrants that his office had detained for 48 hours.
According to the Center for Immigration Statistics (CIS), North Carolina has multiple counties ICE considered to be sanctuary jurisdictions, including Buncombe, Chatham, Durham, Forsyth, Guilford, Mecklenburg, Orange, Wake and Watauga counties.
CIS has also reported which sanctuary jurisdictions have the most declined ICE detainers. North Carolina ranks fifth on that list, with 508 spanning the FY 2023 through Feb. 6, 2025. Per that report, the Wake County Sheriff’s Office ranks 18th nationwide in the number of deportable illegal immigrants who have been released back into the county.
