Law & Order: NC House Republican Spearheads Efforts to Crackdown on Illegal Immigration Law Enforcement

RALEIGH – As sanctuary sheriffs proliferate across the Old North State and Democrats on Jones Street filed bills to give illegal aliens in-state tuition, one might wonder where the defense of law and order is going to come from. Too many Republicans shrink away when it comes to this fight, or, worse, actively work to undermine enforcement of immigration laws through amnesty proposals and the like.

N.C. Rep. George Cleveland, though, is actually filing bills to make sure the Old North State does all it can to combat illegal immigration on the state level and make absolutely sure municipalities across the state are fully compliant with immigration laws.

Cleveland filed the Protect North Carolina Workers Act last month to make sure that E-verify is implemented more effectively by expanding the number of businesses required to comply with the program. It also repeals the E-verify exemption for temporary workers, and clarifies definitions of farm workers to more accurately enforce E-verify compliance.

That’s a good start, as the exemption in the E-verify laws (a relic of Sen. Thom Tillis’ time as Speaker of the N.C. House) leave gaping holes through which employers have skirted laws to knowingly employ illegal aliens.

The second bill, House Bill 135, would enact a host of provisions to ensure entities across the state – like sheriffs offices and colleges – actually comply with federal immigration laws.

The bill would make sure that local law enforcement agencies don’t settle for non-certified forms of identification when making routine stops; give them reasons to actually follow through on state level immigration laws; form a mechanism for combating local entities who refuse to comply with such laws; and, prohibit our state’s colleges from becoming ‘sanctuary campuses.’

We’ve seen the latter being pushed from student Organizations at N.C. State, wanting the university to essentially ban ICE presence on campus.

These are laws and compliance enforcement measures that are sorely needed if we are to effectively combat illegal immigration. There are far too many facilitators across our own state that actively push back, and sometime outright refuse, to enforce laws that are on the books.

It’s nice to see lawmakers like Cleveland make a priority of an issue that has dominated political discourse for years, amplified by factions that are more interested in undermining the law and issues of sovereignty than they are in enforcing or complying with those laws.