Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page heading to Washington D.C. to talk immigration
ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page, considered a long-term Trump ally, is heading to Washington D.C. this week to discuss immigration with the border security committee. He says with open borders, every sheriff is a border sheriff.
With an estimated 12 million people living undocumented in the United States, Page says what's happening 2,000 miles away is a lot smaller when you consider that it's just a two-day drive.
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'People that are human trafficking victims can be brought into our communities in North Carolina, across America. The fentanyl that has come here, which caused a crisis in our community in just a few days, those drugs can be here in our community,' he said.
Page has made several trips to the US-Mexico border, forming relationships with law enforcement there. He says the border is a top national security concern.
'We need to put every resource we can to dismantle the Mexican drug cartel because if they aren't moving people, they're moving drugs,' Page said.
The sheriff has advocated for a stronger border for more than a decade and rallied behind Trump politically, becoming his North Carolina campaign chair in 2020.
'In 2017 I had the opportunity to roundtable with the president along with other sheriffs from the National Sheriff's Association and our border security committee,' said Page.
Rockingham County is also part of what's called a 287(g) agreement, which is a partnership with ICE, along with Alamance and Randolph counties locally. The designation formally makes specially trained deputies an extension of ICE, allowing them to serve immigration warrants to undocumented people who end up in the Rockingham County Jail.
'When we arrest those offenders, whoever they may be, whether illegal or not, and they come into my jail, then we are going to look at the process when we fingerprint and identify who those persons are and where they came from,' said Page.
'If it's determined that they're not legal in the country and they are criminal offenders, then we are going to notify our friends from ICE,' said Page.
And while he hears concerns about fears of raids, he is committed to following the laws.
'I want to be very clear, I support legal immigration, keyword: legal. But anything that starts with illegal is going down a bad path,' he said.
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