House Speaker Destin Hall filed legislation Wednesday that would require sheriffs to notify federal immigration authorities before releasing anyone being held at those officials’ request.
Hall previously led the charge in the GOP-controlled legislature to enact legislation requiring sheriffs to honor the detainer requests submitted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, asking local law enforcement to temporarily hold people under arrest who are believed to be in the country illegally, to give ICE time to take custody of them.
The new legislation Hall filed Wednesday, House Bill 318, seeks to address an issue that arose in Mecklenburg County after those provisions of House Bill 10 went into effect last year.
HB 10 required sheriffs, after they receive a detainer request for someone in their custody, to take the person before a state judicial official, present them with the detainer, and hold them for up to 48 hours after the judicial official issues an order directing them to do so.
Individuals being held on detainers can only be held for 48 hours or until ICE agents take custody or rescind the detainer — whichever happens first.
Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden, who opposed HB 10 and urged lawmakers to reject the bill before it was enacted last year, has drawn criticism for not notifying the agency before releasing an individual held in his jail on a detainer.
McFadden has said his office is complying with ICE’s detainer requests, but that ICE hasn’t been communicating with his deputies and failed to take custody of a Honduran national in January within the 48-hour window prescribed by state law. The man had been charged with domestic violence, and had been deported twice before.
ICE spokesman Lindsay Williams told the Charlotte Observer last month that the agency requires a notification, either a phone call or an email, 48 hours before individuals held on detainers are released from jail.
Williams said that some sheriffs in the state already make that phone call to ICE, in addition to the initial notice the agency receives when local law enforcement tells ICE they’ve booked someone in their jails whose citizenship or legal status can’t be determined.
McFadden has disputed that under current state law, he’s required or obligated to make that additional phone call.
Hall has said the issue in Mecklenburg County prompted lawmakers to examine the law they passed last year and determine if it needs to be revised to additionally require the notification ICE requests.
The new House speaker said last month he views the refusal to inform the agency before release “as an effort to get around trying to help the federal authorities enforce immigration law.”
Source: American Military News
