SALISBURY — Citing safety for North Carolina communities, both N.C. Sen. Carl Ford, R-33, and N.C. Rep. Harry Warren, R-76, backed a bill that directed sheriffs to comply with ICE requests to hold inmates believed to be in the country illegally.

And they weren’t the only ones. Reps. Julia Howard and Larry Pittman, both of whom are Republicans whose districts include parts of Rowan County, voted for the bill, too.

The bill, which passed by the legislature on Tuesday, was vetoed Wednesday morning by Gov. Roy Cooper. Approval of the bill was strictly partisan, with all Republican members voting for it and all Democratic members against. Cooper is a Democrat.

House Bill 370 would require a confinement facility to comply with detainers and warrants issued by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Cooper’s veto message said the bill was about “scoring partisan political points and using fear to divide North Carolina.” 

The veto was not surprising, Warren said.

As a previous state attorney general, Warren said, Cooper has a long history of partisanship in his decisions. 

Both Ford and Warren said sheriffs take an oath of office to uphold the U.S. Constitution and N.C. Constitution. They said law officers should be for the bill because it keeps those who have committed a serious crime in jail and not back on the streets.

“It’s a big-time safety issue,” Ford said.

Ford and Warren said their support also is in conjunction with the North Carolina Sheriffs Association, which called the bill a “high priority” in June.

Cooper argued the bill “weakens law enforcement in North Carolina by mandating sheriffs to do the job of federal agents, using local resources that could hurt their ability to protect their counties.”

The law would allow for the removal of a sheriff or officer from his job for failing to comply with ICE detainers.

“The legislature has made a sheriff’s violation of this new immigration duty as the only specifically named duty violation that can result in a sheriff’s removal from office,” Cooper said in his veto message.

Warren said the bill would allow for uniformity across the state, as many counties are already complying with ICE. Larger municipalities that aren’t complying are likely to have a higher concentration of people who are in the U.S. illegally.

“It needs to be a statewide policy,” Warren said.

Warren said the bill is focused on those who have committed a felony or are a danger to the community. It is lost in partisan talk that, if the immigrants are here illegally, they have already broken the law, he said. That’s unfair to those who are waiting their turn, Warren added.

Ford reiterated that the law focuses on those who have a detainer. Ford said he is welcoming to immigrants, saying, “Come one, come all, come legally.”

The future of the bill is uncertain, since it passed along party lines, Ford and Warren said. Ford said there may be some tweaks to the bill to get to a veto override.

Warren said it is possible for some “wiggle room” and potentially changing the language, specifically the part about removal from office if sheriffs fail to comply.