NC Senate passes bill requiring state agencies under Stein to cooperate with ICE
A new immigration enforcement bill that cleared the North Carolina Senate on Tuesday would direct state agencies to work more closely with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The bill, introduced last week by Senate leader Phil Berger, aims to strengthen state-level cooperation with ICE by requiring four state law enforcement agencies to participate in the federal 287(g) program. Under that program, federal agents can delegate their enforcement duties to trained state law enforcement officers.
Those four agencies — the N.C. Departments of Public Safety and Adult Correction, as well as the State Highway Patrol and State Bureau of Investigation — would also be required to try to determine the legal status of the people in their custody, and notify ICE if they can’t make that determination or find that an individual in custody isn’t a legal resident or citizen.
Lawmakers voted 28-15, along party lines, Tuesday afternoon to approve the bill and send it to the House.
Berger, who doesn’t frequently sign on to legislation as a sponsor, is a primary sponsor of the Senate’s bill.
His office has said the bill is necessary because Gov. Josh Stein has yet to “make clear” his stance on cooperation with ICE. That issue was a top priority for North Carolina Republicans last year, and continues to be in the spotlight this year, as the Trump administration tries to ramp up deportations all over the country.
Asked about the bill Tuesday morning, Stein, a Democrat, didn’t say if he supported or opposed it but said he wanted the public to know that “to the extent there are people committing violent crimes who are not here lawfully, they will be held accountable to the full extent of the law and deported.”
He added that the federal government “has to do a better job coming up with a comprehensive immigration bill that not only secures the border, but also gives folks who have been here for many years and have developed deep roots and have not committed crimes, a pathway to permanent residence or citizenship.”
A spokeswoman for Stein previously said his office was reviewing the bill, and added: “We will always do everything in our power to protect people’s rights and safety.”
ICE has signed agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies in 23 states to participate in the 287(g) program, but critics have said the program is too costly for local agencies like sheriffs’ offices, and question whether local law enforcement officers should be playing any role in federal immigration enforcement.
During floor debate on the bill Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Sophia Chitlik of Durham echoed concerns about the costs that may be incurred by the state to participate in the ICE cooperation program.
Another Durham Democrat, Sen. Natalie Murdock, proposed an amendment to make it illegal under state law to impersonate ICE officers, and to limit state and local law enforcement officers from conducting immigration enforcement in any places of religious worship.
That amendment failed after Republicans substituted it for another amendment that made technical corrections to the bill.
After Tuesday’s session, Senate Minority Leader Sydney Batch questioned why Republicans defeated the amendment.
Batch said that people impersonating ICE agents with jackets that can be purchased off Amazon has become a serious problem, and said the amendment Murdock introduced would create a felony offense and pair it with mandatory jail time — “real penalties” — to address the issue.
“Our Republican colleagues love penalties; we increase felonies like we hand out candy,” Batch said.
A total of 15 sheriffs’ offices are currently participating in the program in North Carolina, according to data reported by ICE on its website.
The bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday would also require the Office of State Budget and Management to determine if any public benefits programs are being used by immigrants lacking legal status and report its findings publicly.
Other provisions of the bill would waive governmental immunity from tort liability for cities and counties that adopt so-called “sanctuary” policies, opening those local governments up to lawsuits. And it would prohibit UNC System schools from having policies that seek to limit enforcement of federal immigration laws.
The effort to expand cooperation with ICE to state agencies builds on the legislation Republicans had been trying to pass for years, and finally enacted over former Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto last year, to require cooperation by sheriffs at the local level.
That bill required sheriffs to honor detainer requests from ICE to temporarily hold people under arrest believed to be in the country illegally, to give the agency time to take custody of them.
House Speaker Destin Hall, the chief proponent of that bill, told reporters last month that lawmakers may need to revisit it to close a “loophole” that has led to sheriffs releasing individuals that were held under detainers without notifying ICE.
Hall said the House is working on its own version of Berger’s bill that will also address the issue about notifying ICE upon release, which means that the Senate-passed bill will likely not be taken up by the lower chamber until Republicans there file their own bill.
Hall said he expects that to happen “very soon.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 4:47 PM with the headline "NC Senate passes bill requiring state agencies under Stein to cooperate with ICE."
