RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Sheriffs would be required to temporarily hold inmates in jail that federal immigration agents believe are in the country illegally under a bill passed by the North Carolina Senate on Thursday.

But unlike two previous versions of the bill successfully shot down by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto in the last five years, the measure stands a strong chance of becoming law thanks to GOP seat gains.

The Senate voted along party lines for the measure in a 28-16 vote. Now the legislation returns to the House, where Speaker Tim Moore said Wednesday he supports the measure and that his chamber could vote on the Senate changes as soon as next week.

An affirmative House vote would send the measure to Cooper, who could veto it again. But GOP supermajority in both chambers since last year means Cooper’s veto could be overridden and the bill enacted if Republicans stay united.

The bill, sponsored by several key House leaders, centers around the issue of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers. Those are requests for local law enforcement to notify federal immigration agents about an inmate believed to be in the country unlawfully and maintain custody.

State Republicans have said the need for the bill is apparent as several sheriffs across the state, particularly from Democratic urban counties, haven’t cooperated with immigration agents.

“Most sheriffs comply, but we have a few who don’t want to,” said Wilson County Republican Sen. Buck Newton on Thursday. “This has been going on for years and years and years that it’s reached the point of critical mass.”

Under the proposed changes, all sheriffs or jailers are required to hold inmates accused of serious crimes for up to 48 hours if a detainer is issued. It also mandates the involvement of judicial officials to order law enforcement to hold the inmate in question, according to the bill.

A Senate amendment to the bill would allow anyone to file a complaint with the state Attorney’s General Office if they believe a jail administrator is not complying with the law. The legislation would go into effect on July 1.

Senate Republicans used a parliamentary maneuver to table another amendment from Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, a Mecklenburg County Democrat, that would allow a district attorney to file an objection to a detainer on behalf of a crime victim who seeks prosecution against an inmate in North Carolina. A district judge would have the ultimate say over whether a jail administrator would comply with a detainer request.

“You need to join me in supporting victims of crime and victims of domestic violence and prosecutors across our state by allowing them to seek justice by voting no,” Mohammed said.

Current state law already asks sheriffs or other law enforcement officials to check an inmate’s legal status if they are charged with serious crimes. If the jailer cannot determine someone’s legal status, a query should be sent to ICE.

Two previous iterations of the bill failed to become law in 2019 and 2022 when Cooper vetoed them and Democrats held enough seats to block an override veto.

In response to the legislation, the governor’s office said Wednesday that Cooper was concerned if the bill was constitutional and effective in making communities safer. It would take away authority from sheriffs for “purely political purposes,” spokesperson Jordan Monaghan said.

As with previous bill versions, advocates for Latino immigrants spoke against the mandate in Senate committees this week and during a lobbying day on Wednesday.

They said the requirement would actually make communities less safe by instilling fear into immigrants, especially those who are undocumented, by discouraging them from reporting crimes or building trust with law enforcement.

“The Republican majority in this legislature continues to push forward extreme laws that target immigrants and punishes our community for merely existing,” Axel Herrera Ramos of Durham with the advocacy group Mi Familia en Acción said at a rally outside the old Capitol building. “Don’t tell me it’s about safety.”

At least six states broadly outlaw local agencies’ ability to restrict federal immigration law enforcement involvement, National Conference of State Legislatures policy analyst Jay Gideon said in an email. These prohibitions aim to strike down “sanctuary” policies that do not enforce local cooperation with federal immigration agents.

Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp also signed a bill Wednesday requiring jailers to check inmates’ immigration status and criminalizes the failure to do so.

___

Associated Press writer Gary Robertson in Raleigh contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, who heads to Wilmington, North Carolina Thursday to talk about the economy, is detouring to Charlotte to meet with the families of law enforcement officers shot to death on the job — just a week after he sat down with the grieving relatives of two cops killed in Upstate New York.

The visit is expected to take place with little fanfare behind closed doors, as the White House aims to respect the privacy of grieving families and avoid the appearance of using their grief for political purposes. The meeting was expected at the airport, an option meant to be the least taxing for local law enforcement still reeling from the deaths but who would have a hand in securing the president’s trip.

Once again, Biden will seek to be an empathetic leader for a community reeling from gun violence, while also calling for stricter rules around firearms and better funding for law enforcement on the front lines.

Four officers were killed earlier this week in North Carolina, when a wanted man opened fire on a joint agency task force that had come to arrest him on a warrant for possession of a firearm as an ex-felon, and fleeing to elude capture. They were: Sam Poloche and William Elliott of the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections; Charlotte-Mecklenburg Officer Joshua Eyer; and Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Weeks.

Four other officers were wounded in the gunfire; the suspect was killed. An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, a 40-caliber handgun and ammunition were found at the scene.

An AR-15 is among the weapons most often used in mass shootings, and it’s the type of gun Biden is talking about when he says the U.S. should ban “ assault weapons.” Congress passed the most comprehensive gun safety legislation in decades in 2022, after a horrific school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. But it didn’t go far enough, Biden often says.

And as he campaigns for the 2024 election, Biden has made curbing gun violence a major campaign platform, elusive to Democrats even during the Obama era, as he fends off attacks from Republican challenger Donald Trump that he is soft on crime and anti-police.

Biden said this week in a statement after the North Carolina killings that the U.S. must “do more to protect our law enforcement officers. That means funding them — so they have the resources they need to do their jobs and keep us safe.”

The violence came just about two weeks after another fatal shooting of law enforcement officers in Syracuse, New York; Lieutenant Michael Hoosock and Officer Michael Jensen were killed while looking for a driver who fled a traffic stop. After his speech, Biden met with relatives of both of the officers’ families.

Biden had already been scheduled to come to Syracuse to celebrate Micron Technology’s plans to build a campus of computer chip factories, but the local police union said officers were still coming to terms with the deaths and weren’t happy with the president’s trip and had hoped he would delay.

On Thursday, Biden will also travel on to Wilmington, where he’s announcing his administration is providing states an additional $3 billion to replace lead pipes across the country, building on $5.8 billion in federal funds for water infrastructure projects around the country announced in February.

Money for the pipe replacement comes from one of the administration’s key legislative victories, the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law that Biden signed in 2021. The infrastructure law includes over $50 billion to upgrade America’s water infrastructure.

“It’s far past time to get the lead out once and for all,″ Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan said Wednesday. “This is a matter of public health, a matter of environmental justice, and a matter of basic human rights.”

Biden and his administration are committed to using all tools available “to achieve a 100% lead-free future for all Americans,” Regan told reporters at a White House briefing. “Every single day we are one step closer to a future where no child has to suffer from the lasting effects of lead exposure.″

The new round of funding will help pay for projects nationwide as Biden seeks to replace all lead pipes in the country.

EPA estimates that North Carolina has 370,000 lead pipes, and $76 million will go to replace them statewide. Biden also will meet with faculty and students at a Wilmington school that replaced a water fountain with high levels of lead with funding from the law.

___

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Matthew Daly and Josh Boak contributed to this story.

84,052. That is the number of abortions reported in Florida in 2023, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration.

With a six-week ban on abortions taking effect Wednesday, abortion providers in other states say they’re already bearing the burden of that demand.

“It’s not even noon, and we’re absolutely already seeing an impact, especially in requests for appointments,” said Calla Hales, executive director of Preferred Women’s Health Center, which provides abortions and has two clinics in North Carolina. “We’re seeing an influx of calls coming in from patients trying to figure out what the laws are and what they need to do to receive care outside of Florida since they are no longer able to.”

Abortion is currently banned after 12 weeks in North Carolina. That’s one of the least restrictive bans in the southeastern U.S.

Hales said North Carolina abortion providers have managed an influx of patients since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in its 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision..

“When Dobbs went into effect… the last half of 2022, we were operating at a 167% capacity,” Hales said.

While some of that demand quieted when North Carolina’s current abortion restriction took effect in 2023, Hales said providers in the state are already stretched thin as they brace for the impact of Florida’s new restrictions in the coming weeks and months.

“The unfortunate reality is North Carolina is already maxed,” Hales said. “There’s only so much we can do to continue to expand.”

Other businesses are preparing to absorb the demand as well.

GetStix is a website that sells women’s health products including pregnancy tests, condoms and the morning-after pill.

“After the Dobbs decision, we found that sales honestly skyrocketed,” the site’s co-founder, Cynthia Plotch, said. “And today with the latest news out of Florida, we expect to see the same.”

Stix shared sales data with WPTV, which shows a 43% increase in sales of its morning-after pill compared with last year.

Stix also reported a 123% increase in sales of the medication to Florida customers since 2022.

To date this year, AHCA reports 14,735 abortions performed in Florida. Ninety percent of those occurred during the first trimester of pregnancy.

One abortion was reported this year during the third trimester. Because Florida abortion providers are required to report the reason for ending a pregnancy to the state, we know it was due to a fatal fetal abnormality.

Florida’s new abortion restriction provide exceptions for abortions to take place between six and 15 weeks into a pregnancy in cases of rape, incest, human trafficking. If a patient claims any of those exceptions, they are required bring legal or medical documentation to the abortion provider.

In 2023, the AHCA reported 11 pregnancies were terminated in Florida due to incest, 107 were terminated due to rape, and 2 were terminated due to human trafficking.

An exception in the new restriction also provides for abortion between 6 and 15 weeks gestation if “there is a medical necessity for legitimate emergency medical procedures for termination of the pregnancy to save the pregnant woman’s life or avert a serious risk of imminent substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman other than a psychological condition.”

This exception requires certification from two physicians in writing, unless one physician certifies in writing that a second doctor is unavailable to consult.

The AHCA reports 2,325 pregnancies in 2023 were terminated due to the emotional or psychological health of the mother, 1,334 abortions were performed due to a physical health condition that was not life-threatening for the mother, and 251 were performed due to a condition that threatened the mother’s life.

Scripps Only Content 2024