N.C. is an immigration enforcement hot spot
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Efforts to arrest and remove unauthorized immigrants under the Trump administration appear most aggressive in southern states with Democratic-leaning cities, including North Carolina, according to an Axios analysis.
Why it matters: Local law enforcement agencies in Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia have been most cooperative with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in rounding up immigrants through deals known as 287 (g) agreements, the analysis shows.
- There are 629 such agreements now in place across the country.
- Twenty-two are in North Carolina — and that number could grow under a bill being proposed by the Republican-led N.C. General Assembly.
Zoom in: This past week, the N.C. House passed Senate Bill 153, a bill that would require all law enforcement agencies, local governments and universities in the state to cooperate with ICE, WFAE reported. (A previous bill only required sheriffs to cooperate with ICE.)
- The new bill would also open up local governments that don't cooperate with ICE to lawsuits and give Republican state auditor Dave Boliek power to investigate how cooperative state agencies are with ICE.
- If the N.C. Senate, which already passed the bill once, gives it a final sign-off, it will go to Gov. Josh Stein's office, WRAL noted.
- Republicans no longer have a supermajority in the General Assembly, meaning they would need to get at least one Democrat to vote with them, if Stein, a Democrat, vetoes the bill.
What they're saying: A spokesperson for Gov. Stein said he continues to review the bill.
- "He has made clear that if someone commits a crime and they are here illegally; they should be deported," the spokesperson said in a statement.
By the numbers: Of the 42,000 removals of immigrants ordered in March, nearly 50% involved people in Texas, California, New York, Virginia and Florida, according to an analysis of data from the nonpartisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).
- In North Carolina, 1,771 immigrants were ordered to be removed in March — the most of any month in TRAC's database.
Go deeper into Axios' analysis of immigration enforcement across the U.S.