SANCTUARY GOVERNOR: Cooper Immediately Vetoes Sheriff/ICE Cooperation Bill

RALEIGH – That didn’t take long. Democrat Roy Cooper clearly confirmed his status as North Carolina’s ‘Sanctuary Governor’ when he vetoed House Bill 370 before the ink from the legislature could dry. The ‘Require Cooperation with ICE Detainers’ bill would require sheriff departments and local law enforcement to hold on to illegal aliens arrested for other crimes and already in custody so ICE can pick them up.

Common sense, right? For Cooper, even the appearance of supporting the enforcement of immigration law is out of bounds as far as his Left’s base is concerned.

Nope, Governor Cooper would rather look the other way while known illegal aliens arrested for breaking our laws are released back into the shadows of our communities. This includes the release of illegal aliens suspected of heinous crimes such as raping a child, combined with a history of evading authorities, all in an effort to appear more ‘progressive.’

This is not a hypothetical risk; every month illegal aliens are arrested in North Carolina for such crimes, and the policy of select sheriffs and Democrats like Cooper is to take their side against federal authorities trying to enforce immigration law.

In fact, in North Carolina, during the past 18 months, more than 331 illegal aliens have been charged with 1,172 child rapes and child sexual assaults, according to NCFIRE

James Johnson, director of NCFIRE.info says he is only able to gather data from 30 of the state’s 100 counties, which means it’s likely the statewide count is significantly higher.

Cooper rushed to grab his veto pen so the State can’t mandate that those people be turned over to ICE. The Democrat’s tortured reasoning is that cooperating with ICE makes communities of illegal immigrants less comfortable in calling law enforcement to report crimes and thus harms public safety.

But beyond the Left’s deference to illegal immigrants’ sense of comfort over citizens’ general welfare, how comfort inducing is it to release child rapists right back into the very immigrant communities they were plaguing in the first place? Wouldn’t it be best for everyone to remove such people entirely even if it’s on account of, say, breaking federal immigration laws? That’s kind of how law and order works, and such expectations can’t merely be suspended because it doesn’t jive well with ‘Woke Culture.’

With this swift veto Cooper is sending a loud signal that he is so woke that he, as the State’s top executive, will fight for North Carolina to be a sanctuary for illegal aliens, no matter their criminal history.

His likely 2020 opponent, Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, called Cooper out as the ‘Sanctuary Governor’ he is:

“Gov. Cooper has once again shown he is more concerned about protecting violent criminals who are in our state illegally than the safety and security of our citizens. This veto is shameful and jeopardizes public safety. The Governor cannot stand behind the far left’s talking points on this issue. Just this year, illegal immigrants arrested for child rape, domestic abuse and other violent crimes have been released back into the public without repercussions. This complete disregard for public safety must stop.”

On this matter, and others, it seems voters across North Carolina will have a very clear choice about just what kind of leadership we want.