ICE bill gets chilly reception from many lawyers.

Byline: Bill Cresenzo

North Carolina legislators are pressing ahead with a controversial bill that would require sheriffs in the state's 100 counties to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when their officers arrest people whom ICE believes have emigrated to the country illegally.

The Senate is currently considering HB 370, which passed the House on April 3. The bill would require jail administrators to let ICE officials interview any person in their custody upon request. If law enforcement learns that ICE has a warrant out for a person charged with a crime, they would have to take the person before a judge, who would then order that the person be held in custody (in order to give ICE time to determine whether it wants to take the person into federal custody). The bill would allow sheriffs to be removed from office for failure to comply with the new law.

The bill's sponsors and supporters say that local cooperation with the federal agency is crucial to keeping communities safe. One of the bill's primary sponsors, Rep. Destin Hall, R- Caldwell, pressed that point at a recent standing-room-only meeting of the Senate's Judiciary Committee and said that only a small number of sheriffs in the state are publicly opposed to the bill.

But those sheriffs have been vocal about their displeasure, and immigration attorneys interviewed by Lawyers Weekly said that the law would likely be unconstitutional.

George Pappas, an immigration attorney in Asheville, points to Santos v. Frederick Board of Commissioners, a 2013 decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, holding that local law enforcement is prohibited from enforcing immigration law, which is a civil matter. Pappas posited that HB 370's supporters are forging ahead with it to try to score political points.

"It's political posturing--it's to keep immigration at the forefront of political football," he said. "It's not going to be passed anyway. It's going to be vetoed." (The House passed the bill by a 63-51 margin, which would not be enough to override a hypothetical veto.)

Gigi Gardner, an attorney in Raleigh, said immigration law falls exclusively within the jurisdiction of the federal government.

"A state judicial official is preempted by federal law from adjudicating the validity of an ICE detainer and administrative warrant," Gardner said.

On June 19, sheriffs from many of the state's more urban counties held a press conference in Raleigh and blasted the bill.

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