What Is Your County Doing About Illegal Immigration?
A Review Of Local Policies in North Carolina
Many local and state officials claim their hands are tied when it comes to immigration enforcement. “It’s a federal issue,” they say – as if to suggest they would change things if only they could. By contrast, the U.S. Department of Justice has confirmed that as “sovereign entities” states and localities “have the inherent authority to enforce civil and criminal violations of federal immigration law.”
While it is true the federal government possesses exclusive authority to regulate immigration, this means Congress is responsible for determining who should or should not be admitted into the United States. Apart from this, the federal government has made it clear it needs local assistance in enforcing immigration law. Consider that there are an estimated 11 million to 40 million illegal aliens in the United States. Yet, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) only employs 2,000 federal agents dedicated to interior immigration enforcement. On the upper end, this equates to 1 agent per 20,000 illegal aliens. By contrast, there are approximately 800,000 local law enforcement officers in the United States. This is a ratio of 50 to 1 – much better odds. To facilitate local cooperation in enforcing immigration law Congress created the 287(g) program in 1996. Likewise, federal law generally prohibits the extension of most state and local welfare, retirement, health and postsecondary educational benefits to illegal aliens.
Local governments not only have an important role to play in enforcing federal immigration law, they are duty bound to do so. The North Carolina Constitution affirms that “every citizen of this State owes paramount allegiance” to the U.S. Constitution and that “no law or ordinance” may contravene federal law. Similarly, state law (G.S. §11-7) requires every elected and appointed official, including all local officials, to “solemnly and sincerely” swear to support the U.S. Constitution. Per North Carolina law (S.L. 2007-494), all counties and localities should also be participating in the Criminal Alien Program (CAP), if they are not already enrolled in 287(g).
Below is a summary of what North Carolina’s counties and cities are doing to combat illegal immigration.
Alamance County:
Beaufort County:
Cabarrus County:
Cumberland County:
Davidson County:
Forsyth County:
Gaston County:
Henderson County:
Town of Landis:
Lincoln County:
Mecklenburg County:
Wake County:
Want to learn more?
Check out this free guide from the Federation for American Immigration Reform:
http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=research_statelocalguide or contact Dr. Jameson Taylor at jameson.taylor@nccivitas.org, director of policy at the Civitas Institute. You may also want to attend our Illegal Immigration and Local Governments Workshop happening on Friday, September 19th.
