State Senate panders with wasteful 'border protection' legislation
North Carolina Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) mingles on the Senate floor ahead of the legislative session's opening day on Jan. 8, 2025. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)
The first time most people hear about a bill introduced by North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger entitled the 'Border Protection Act,' a lot of them think: 'Wait — are South Carolina or Virginia up to something?'
And as silly as that sounds, it's no sillier than the bill itself — which has nothing to do with state or national borders, but rather is the latest effort by a politician to pander to prejudice and irrational fears about immigration.
Not only would the bill force state law enforcement agencies to, among other things, run down the immigration status of everyone in their custody, it would mandate costly audits of numerous public programs to make sure no unauthorized immigrant is receiving a benefit — something that's already illegal.
The bottom line: This cynically labeled bill will impose expensive and wasteful new mandates on already overworked and understaffed agencies, while sowing more alienation and stress in the lives of thousands of good and hardworking men and women who clean our public restrooms, help build our homes and put food on our tables.
For NC Newsline, I'm Rob Schofield.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
17 minutes ago
- Fox News
Democrat Mikie Sherrill wins NJ gubernatorial primary, setting up showdown with Trump-backed GOP winner
MORRISTOWN, N.J. – Rep. Mikie Sherrill won New Jersey's Democratic gubernatorial primary on Tuesday Associated Press projects that Sherrill has won the Democratic primary, teeing up a competitive race against three-time gubernatorial candidate and former GOP state lawmaker, Jack Ciattarelli, to replace Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy, who is term-limited this year. Sherill swept a crowded field of Democratic candidates, including Newark mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City mayor Steve Fulop, New Jersey Education Association president Sean Spiller, former New Jersey Senate president Steve Sweeney and fellow U.S. Rep. Josh and Republican candidates often evoked President Donald Trump's name on the New Jersey campaign trail, as Democrats positioned themselves as the most anti-Trump and Republicans vied to be the most pro-Trump candidate. It was Ciattarelli who landed the Trump endorsement as Democrats worked to contrast the president's vision with their own. TRUMP NOT ON BALLOT, BUT PRESIDENT FRONT AND CENTER IN NEW JERSEY'S PRIMARY FOR GOVERNORNew Jersey is one of just two governor's races in 2025, along with Virginia. Both will be used by politicians and pundits to gauge how Americans are responding to Trump's second term ahead of the midterm elections next year. TRUMP FRONT-AND-CENTER IN REPUBLICAN PRIMARY FOR GOVERNOR AS EARLY VOTING KICKS OFFAs they campaigned for the coveted nomination, Democratic candidates walked a fine line between building on Murphy's legacy and promising to change the status quo in Trenton. Like Murphy, Democratic candidates have rejected Trump's executive orders, his crackdown on illegal immigration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts. Acting as the last line of defense to a sweeping Republican agenda, Democratic governors have often rejected Trump's executive actions during his second term. By suing the Trump administration to unlock federal funds or refusing to comply with ICE deportations, Democratic governors – including many rumored to harbor 2028 presidential ambitions – are often leading the party's resistance to Trump. Trump once again took center stage on Tuesday as Sherrill and Gottheimer were peppered with questions by the press about the protests and riots unfolding in Los Angeles. When asked how she would handle the ongoing situation in Los Angeles differently from Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sherrill touted her military and law enforcement background and told Fox News Digital she would stand up "strongly in favor of keeping people here in the state safe," return safety to the streets and continue "speaking out against a president who is trying to create violence in the country."Sherrill is a U.S. Navy veteran and served in the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey as an outreach and re-entry coordinator, which she described as prosecuting federal cases and advising law enforcement on investigations. "Governor Newsom surged law enforcement in, and what Trump seems to be doing is trying to add fuel to the fire and really make the situation violent and bad," Sherrill told reporters after casting her ballot in Montclair on Tuesday morning. "That's completely unacceptable."Gottheimer said it was "outrageous" for Trump to send the National Guard to California without Newsom's request. "The fact that the president, for the first time since 1965, sent troops in from the National Guard without a request from the governor is outrageous. It's just more chaos that we're used to having in this administration. It's not how I would approach this," Gottheimer told Fox News Digital after voting in Tenafly. Democratic candidates threw their support behind Baraka last month after he was arrested for trespassing at an ICE facility in Newark. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) called it a "beyond bizarre political stunt," but Baraka has maintained that he did nothing wrong. Last week, Baraka filed a lawsuit against Alina Habba, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Agent Ricky Patel "for false arrest, malicious prosecution, and defamation." Trump outperformed in the Garden State in 2024, according to Fox News Voter Analysis. While Vice President Kamala Harris won New Jersey in 2024 as expected, Trump gained a nearly five-point improvement from his 2020 vote share and Harris' support dropped by about five points. He gained across New Jersey, with his largest swings in the northeast corner of the state. Hudson and Passaic counties lead the lost by a hair to Murphy in 2021 and framed his candidacy as a referendum on the Democratic policies that have driven New Jersey for the past eight years. Fox News' Remy Numa contributed to this report.
30 minutes ago
Some Democrats condemn violence in LA protests and Trump's response to it
Democratic senators on Tuesday were walking a line between criticizing the White House for sending troops to put down protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Los Angeles and the violence the administration says caused it to act. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania called out some in his party for not condemning the violence. 'I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that. This is anarchy and true chaos,' Fetterman said in a post on X on Monday. 'My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement,' Fetterman continued. But some of his colleagues on Capitol Hill say they can support the sentiment behind the protests without condoning violence. 'We can do two things at one time. We can condemn protests that get out of control, and we can acknowledge that Donald Trump has no interest in standing up to violent protesters,' Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday when asked about Fetterman's comment. 'He pardoned every single violent protester that tried to attack our Capitol and destroy our democracy," he said. "The fact of the matter is, Donald Trump is not looking to create peace. He's not looking to calm the situation. He's looking for a fight,' Murphy continued. Murphy and other Democrats repeated that local and state government officials in the city of Los Angeles and the state of California have said they don't need federal help with holding protesters that have engaged in violence or property destruction accountable. '[They] all say, 'We've got this under control.' It is unfortunate -- not necessary to mobilize U.S. Marines who are trained for the Pacific, not for the streets of Los Angeles,' Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said. 'It is, of course, important that anyone who attacks police officers or sets fire to vehicles or carries out vandalism, being interrupted and arrested. I support peaceful protest,' Coons said. Coons and Murphy said Trump's moves are a distraction from other -- perhaps more important -- matters in Washington, like the 'big, beautiful bill' Trump wants to get passed to fund his agenda, which Democrats are lobbying against. 'Last week, every one of you was asking me about the fight between Elon Musk and Trump, and how Musk was denouncing the 'big, beautiful bill' as debt and deficit and how a few nervous Republicans were recognizing that taking health care away from 16 million Americans was a really bad idea,' Coons told reporters. 'No one's asking me about that this week. You're only asking me about Los Angeles. It is a critical issue … I'm not diminishing the significance of the issue, but it's a reminder that here in the Senate -- what is right in front of us is the so-called 'big, beautiful bill, which will have consequences for millions of Americans in terms of increasing hunger and decreasing access to health,' Coons added. Murphy said Trump is trying to 'create headlines in other places.' Republican senators stood behind the president's decision to send in the troops. Sen. Rand Paul said Democrats' reaction to the protests is 'appalling' and a reason why voters don't agree with them. 'I think it's another reason why you're seeing the demise of the Democrat brand around the country. You got a city on fire. You got people marching with foreign flags, people marching with a Mexican flag in L.A., resisting federal law, interfering with federal law. You have the governor and the mayor, both Democrats, saying they will interfere and will not uphold federal law,' Paul said. Republican Sen. Rick Scott blamed Democrats' position on immigration for the unrest. 'If you look at what's going on in LA, it shows exactly what Biden Democrats did by opening their borders the way they did, and allowing people, millions and millions and millions of people, to come in here. They've caused all this,' Scott said. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, who stirred controversy in Trump's first term in 2020 for urging him to deploy the National Guard to stop the George Floyd riots, published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday calling for 'an overwhelming show of force to end the riots" and blaming Democrats for letting them happen. "Is anyone surprised? Democrats also stood idly by or even celebrated as the Black Lives Matter riots ransacked our cities five years ago,' he wrote. 'If anything, these riots are worse. At least the [Black Lives Matter] rioters didn't wave foreign flags."
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
New Jersey governor primary results in Republican and Democratic races
The polls close at 8 p.m. on June 10 primary day in New Jersey as voters went to the polls to select a candidate to represent the Democratic and Republican parties in the fall gubernatorial election. On the Republican side, the candidates are state Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Assemblyman and previous Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli, and former radio personality Bill Spadea. Two other Republican candidates, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac and Justin Barbera, are also on the June 10 primary ballot but did not qualify to participate in spring debates. The Democratic candidates are Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, NJSEA President and former Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney. Voting has been underway since mail-in ballots were sent out in April. Early in-person voting was held from June 3 through June is a look at the unofficial totals from the 21 county board of election websites. The vote totals reflect the data that was current as of the latest time stamp on this story and may not include early voting and vote-by-mail totals. Check back as the vote totals will be updated This article originally appeared on New Jersey governor primary results in Republican and Democratic races
