‘New Normal’: ICE Arrested 200 Illegals In North Carolina Last Week

Immigration and Customs Enforcement reports that since two sheriffs in North Carolina are refusing to work with the agency, it has begun sweeping raids throughout the state and arrested 200 illegal immigrants last week alone.

Calling it the “new normal,” ICE director Sean Gallagher explained that these agency-led raids are the “direct conclusion” of local law enforcement refusing to work with the agency. Two newly elected sheriffs, representing the state’s two most populous counties, have stopped reporting the citizenship status of those they apprehend in an effort to strangle the federal agency.

The Charlotte Observer reported:

“This is the direct conclusion of dangerous policies of not cooperating with ICE,” said Sean Gallagher, who oversees the agency’s operation in the Carolinas and Georgia. “This forces my officers to go out onto the street to conduct more enforcement.”

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Since December, newly elected sheriffs in the state’s two most populous counties — Mecklenburg and Wake — have reversed a policy that notifies ICE about the legal status of inmates in county jails. The Durham County Sheriff’s Office also ended the practice of honoring ICE detainers.

These changes, Gallagher said, have given the agency “no choice” but to conduct targeted enforcement across the state this week. “This is politics over public safety at its worst.”

Last week, ICE detained over 200 illegal immigrants in North Carolina during their sweeping raids, and discovered another 25 during an unrelated raid.

Pledging to end all cooperation with ICE, newly elected Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker doubled down on his promise when sworn in last year.

The News Observer reported:

“We serve a lot of communities,” Baker said as he stood next to Uriel Rodriguez, a middle school student he met while campaigning. “We want to make it so that the Wake County Sheriff’s Office treats everybody the same and improves the quality of life for each and every person. It’s about humanity. It’s about just caring for people. That’s a large part of what this office will be doing, moving forward.”

Apparently Baker and the other North Carolina sheriffs elected on similar platforms failed to realize that his agency’s refusal to enforce federal law due to its love of “caring for” illegal immigrants would simply result in federal enforcement of already existing laws.