A top Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said North Carolina officials are blocking access to more than a thousand people wanted by federal immigration agents.
The department deployed Border Patrol agents in Raleigh and Charlotte to apprehend people in the U.S. illegally — an ongoing operation that some local officials criticized as unnecessary. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs for the department, told Fox News that “sanctuary city politicians” should let ICE into the area’s jails.
“There’s about 1,400 criminal illegal aliens that, right now, are in North Carolina and Charlotte’s jails that they refuse to turn over to ICE law enforcement,” she said in a video clip the department posted on X on Nov. 17.
PolitiFact found no evidence that 1,400 people in the country illegally are sitting in North Carolina’s jails, or that local law enforcement is refusing to hand them over to federal immigration officials. We emailed the Department of Homeland Security’s communication team about McLaughlin’s claim. A department spokesperson said “CBP has no further information to provide.”
It’s possible that McLaughlin misspoke. The same figure she mentioned in the Fox News interview — 1,400 — appears in a Nov. 15 statement issued by the department. The statement claims that “nearly 1,400 detainers across North Carolina have not been honored—releasing criminal illegal aliens into North Carolina’s neighborhoods.”
A detainer is a request that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sends to locally-operated jails asking law enforcement to hold someone in their custody until federal agents arrive to pick them up. It is used even if the person posts bail and even if the suspect has only been charged — but not convicted — of a crime. The DHS statement doesn’t say whether those detainers were ignored this year, last year or over the span of many years.
McLaughlin’s claim stands out because it comes a year after North Carolina enacted a law requiring sheriffs — who control local jails — to cooperate with federal immigration officials. They’re now required to inform ICE anytime someone is jailed on a suspicion of committing any crime other than a low-level misdemeanor. All felony allegations require ICE notification, as do allegations of misdemeanors related to impaired driving, domestic violence and other crimes.
Historically, most sheriffs complied with ICE detainers. However, some sheriffs — including those in Wake and Mecklenburg counties, where Border Patrol is conducting operations — opposed the law for a number of reasons. Among them: a fear of violating someone’s constitutional rights.
Those offices say they’re complying with the new law.
The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office is not blocking immigration officials from any of the 85 people in its jail who are suspected of being in the country illegally, office spokesperson Sarah Mastouri told PolitiFact. The Wake County Sheriff’s Office is also complying with detainer requests, office spokesperson Rosalia Fodera said. Between Nov. 1 and Nov. 19, federal immigration officials took into custody 28 people who were in the Wake County jail, she said.
The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association, a group that represents and advocates for sheriffs across the state, said it was unaware of any sheriff who is out of compliance with the new law.
“I do not believe that there are any North Carolina sheriffs who are refusing to turn over inmates to ICE as required by law,” association spokesperson Eddie Caldwell said.
Our ruling
McLaughlin said, “There’s about 1,400 criminal illegal aliens that, right now, are in North Carolina and Charlotte’s jails that they refuse to turn over to ICE law enforcement.”
PolitiFact found no evidence that 1,400 people in the country illegally are sitting in North Carolina’s jails, or that local law enforcement is refusing to hand those people over to federal immigration officials.
We rate this claim False.
