PHOTO | TROY HULL

Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden slammed a Republican-sponsored bill that would require sheriffs to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to determine the immigration status of inmates and hold them for pickup by federal agents.

Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden opposes a state bill that would force his office to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to determine the immigration status of inmates and allow ICE agents to pick them up.

Senate Bill 101, which was passed both chambers, would compel county sheriffs to cooperate with federal officials. Gov. Roy Cooper, who vetoed a similar measure in 2019, has signaled he’s likely to do it again.

Among the reasons McFadden opposes S.B. 101 are the cost burden placed on county law enforcement agencies to house ICE detainees. Mecklenburg has struggled with staffing shortages since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also said holding people for ICE at county expense is an undue and counterproductive burden on local law enforcement.

“The cost per day (estimate) was a contributing factor to my decision in April 2019 to no longer participate in the Statewide Misdemeanant Confinement Program which only reimbursed Sheriffs $40/day for housing sentenced residents,” McFadden wrote in a statement. “From a historical perspective, the ‘$40/day’ has been in place for State housing since 1997. Surely, we can agree, no one is paying the same price they did in 1997 for anything.”

The cost of housing a resident at Mecklenburg County Detention Center Central in fiscal year 2021-22 was $191.41 per day, McFadden said.

S.B. 101 would require sheriffs and jail administrators to check whether inmates charged with felony drug or violent crimes has detainers from ICE seeking custody. If one is listed, deputies must take the inmate to a magistrate or judge who’ll determine whether to issue an order to hold them for an additional 48 hours.

State law mandates sheriffs notify ICE regarding undocumented persons in their custody, but McFadden, who dropped Mecklenburg’s voluntary compliance with the federal 287g program, criticized Republican lawmakers for expanding the hold mandate. He also slammed the bill as targeting departments in urban areas.

“It is important to understand when a Sheriff is ordered by a judicial official to release someone, he/she cannot continue to hold a person in custody,” McFadden wrote. “The signature of a federal agent does not supersede a judicial order. The law has not changed. What has changed however, is the singling out of some sheriffs who just so happen to be [B]lack sheriffs. In 2019 we were classified as ‘urban sheriffs,’ ‘sanctuary sheriffs,’ ‘super-minority-majority sheriff’s (sic)’ and in 2021, ‘metro sheriffs.’”

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