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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
NC Senate panel approves bill expanding ICE detention requirements for sheriffs
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service Processing Center in El Centro, Calif. (Stock photo by) The North Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of a bill Wednesday that would expand state requirements for sheriffs to detain undocumented immigrants for retrieval by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The bill, known as House Bill 318 or 'the Criminal Illegal Alien Enforcement Act,' passed the North Carolina House in April and is now set for a vote by the Senate Rules Committee Thursday morning. It represents a continuation of the detention requirements passed in November under House Bill 10. Rep. Carson Smith (R-Pender), a former sheriff, described the bill as an attempt to 'clarify and make a few changes' to the law after seeing it in effect. HB 318 would expand the requirement for verifying immigration status from a specific set of felonies to all felonies as well as any impaired driving offenses. It also modifies the requirements for releasing individuals in custody under ICE detention orders. Under the proposed law, a judge or magistrate would inquire into the immigration status of any defendant charged with a felony or impaired driving offense at their pretrial release hearing. If their status cannot be determined, they would be held for an additional two hours after an inquiry to ICE on whether they are subject to any detention orders. 'If an ICE detainer and warrant is received, they're taken to the judicial official, probably the magistrate, to determine that they are the person that is subject to that detainer and that administrative warrant,' Smith said. 'If they are, they will be held up to 48 hours after whatever point they would otherwise be released for ICE to come pick them up.' Democrats and members of the public spoke out against the bill, arguing that it damages rather than furthers public safety. Sen. Lisa Grafstein (D-Wake) said she believes the requirements violate the U.S. Constitution, given that they would require sheriffs to carry out the ICE hold even when the individual in question has been exonerated or had their charges dismissed. 'We're talking about keeping people where the state has no constitutional interest in holding them,' Grafstein said. Under the terms of the existing law, sheriffs must only hold individuals in custody for 48 hours after the ICE detention order is received. The new proposal would require a 48-hour hold beginning when they would otherwise be released from custody. Sen. Sydney Batch (D-Wake) said the proposal also violates the rights of crime victims, preventing them from getting justice if the offender is subject to deportation. 'As a victim myself, I wanted my day in court to testify against my offender, which I had the ability to do,' Batch said. 'This new change would mean that if he were here and there was an ICE detainer, he would then be deported prior to the time of which I would have my day in court.' Mary Ross, an activist with Democracy Out Loud who spoke during the public comment period, said deporting someone based only on allegations of a crime is 'a really cruel way to treat people.' 'They're people who are our neighbors, and most of whom are working hard, doing great work with us,' Ross said. 'I just object to, essentially, judge and jury — the police officer arrests somebody and, boom, they're a convicted criminal and a prisoner and they're gone.' The bill passed the Judiciary Committee hours before another bill on immigration, Senate Bill 153, passed the House. That measure, the 'North Carolina Border Protection Act,' now heads to Gov. Josh Stein's desk for his consideration. In a press release Wednesday, House Republicans announced an ad campaign targeting four Democratic lawmakers who voted against one or both bills.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hundreds of bills never stood a chance this legislative session. They had one thing in common.
Democratic leader Robert Reives notes that more than 700 Democratic-sponsored bills never received a hearing this session. (Photo: NCGA screengrab) North Carolina House and Senate Democrats held a funeral of sorts Tuesday, highlighting the hundreds of bills they introduced this session that were then directed to the Rules Committees of the two houses, the proverbial legislative graveyard. Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch (D-Wake) said Democrats introduced over 700 bills this session that were killed in committee. 'Common sense, community focused solutions to our state's biggest problems — and they went nowhere,' Batch said. 'Republicans didn't debate or defeat these ideas. They shoved them in drawers, locked them behind doors, and they prayed every single day that the public never finds out how little they're actually doing with their tax dollars that you will send to this state to run our government.' Batch said gerrymandering has allowed Republicans, who chair the committees, to completely control which bills advance and which never see the light of day. Sen. Woodson Bradley (D-Mecklenburg) said she came to Raleigh hoping to make communities safer, only to find her ideas silenced by the majority party. 'I may be a freshman senator, but I'm also a domestic violence survivor. I'm a responsible gun owner and concealed carry holder. I'm the daughter and wife of law enforcement. I know crime. I know cops. But more important than that, less than 5% of the people in this building know what it's like to be a victim. And that's who I came here to help,' said the Mecklenburg County Democrat. Bradley said the ideas she championed were basic protections and deserved to be fully debated. 'We hear a lot from the other side about protecting families and standing with law enforcement. But if you won't even bring a bill to the table that protects survivors of abuse or helps officers prevent gun violence, what are you standing for?' Sen. Lisa Grafstein (D-Wake) said that even ideas that had merit like allowing remote license renewals to ease the NC DMV backlog were dismissed, if the idea came from a Democrat. 'Democrats introduced real solutions for fixing what ails us in state government, hiring critical staff, investing in the infrastructure behind state services. But Republicans actually didn't want to fix it. They wanted to exploit the failings to support their talking-point that government doesn't work.' Senate Bill 611 would have taken an estimated one million North Carolinians out of lines at the DMV allowing them to complete their task online, said Grafstein. But Republicans kept the bill bottled up and allowed it to die rather than make the May 8 crossover deadline. 'The Republican majority would rather have people stand in line all day and get frustrated because it fits that narrative that we just need to slash more and privatize.' Rep. Lindsay Prather (D-Buncombe) said bills that would restore teacher longevity pay and establish a $17 an hour minimum salary for non-certified public school employees also failed to gain traction. Legislative leaders also dismissed both the Voucher School Accountability Act and the Voucher School Transparency Act. 'These are bills that would shine a light on private schools receiving public funds, giving more information to parents to make an informed decision, and more information to taxpayers on whether your money is actually going to provide a quality education to a North Carolina student.' Prather said decisions not to take up those bills shortchanged North Carolina's children and their parents. As a Captain in the US Army National Guard, Rep. Dante Pittman (D-Wilson) said he has learned not to surrender. He's still advocating this session for the Working Families Act (House Bill 786) that would raise the state's minimum wage, increase the stock of affordable housing and reenact the child tax credit. 'Not all hope is lost. And I would offer for them to take these good ideas and include them in the budget. Because what we're trying to do here in North Carolina is make sure that our children have the opportunity that they need and our families are secure.' The North Carolina House will begin the process of unveiling parts of its state spending plan on Thursday.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill allowing private school employees to carry concealed firearms passes NC Senate panel
Students line up as they return to school in Durham County. (File photo) The North Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would allow employees and volunteers of K-12 private schools to carry concealed firearms on school property Tuesday afternoon. Senate Bill 280 would allow employees and volunteers at these schools to possess handguns and stun guns with the consent of school administrators and written notice to parents. They must hold a concealed carry permit and complete additional training before becoming eligible to possess firearms on school property. The proposal is part of a larger trend in the North Carolina legislature in which Republican lawmakers have sought to respond to the rise in school shootings by equipping adults with firearms and defensive implements. A bill with a similar approach passed the House Judiciary 2 Committee a day prior allowing schools to store tasers, pepper spray, and other 'less-than-lethal' weapons in biometric safes. A separate provision in SB 280 allows for firearms to be carried by attendees of worship services, funerals, weddings, and other religious events held at places of worship located on the grounds of private schools at the discretion of school administrators. Sen. Steve Jarvis (R-Davidson) said the bill 'balances safety with individual rights' through stringent criteria for training, permitting, and school oversight. 'This bill simply strengthens the safety in North Carolina's private schools while respecting the unique needs of our communities,' Jarvis said. 'It allows private school employees or volunteers with concealed carry permits to carry firearms on school grounds, but only with the explicit authorization of the school board and/or the administration director.' Sen. Sydney Batch (D-Wake) proposed adding a requirement that private school employees and volunteers affected by the bill be vetted against the state's Responsible Individuals List, which tracks adults implicated in the abuse and serious neglect of children. Jarvis said he would follow up with her suggestion at some point in the future. Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about the implications that other bills around concealed carry would have on these new exceptions. Sen. Terence Everitt (D-Wake) noted that the Senate passed a bill allowing permitless concealed carry in March, warning that this would undermine SB 280's reliance on permit training and safety requirements. Sen. Lisa Grafstein (D-Wake) expressed concerns about the lack of an age requirement, noting that the permitless carry bill would allow 18-year-olds to carry concealed firearms — and by extension, SB 280 could allow them to bring them into schools. Robert Ryan, an attorney with the General Assembly's Legislative Affairs Division, said that even with the existence of permitless concealed carry, this bill would still require a permit for individuals to carry weapons onto school grounds — leaving intact the training and age requirements. North Carolina would continue issuing concealed carry permits even under the March bill to maintain reciprocity with states that do not have permitless carry. Among the speakers during the public comment part of the meeting were leaders at religious private schools who urged lawmakers to pass the bill so they and their students could feel safe. 'We do everything that we can within the law to protect these precious children from danger,' said Matthew Floyd, a faculty member at Greenville Christian Academy. 'We love these children as our own and many are willing and able to be trained, you know, with rigorous training to be able to be an immediate line of defense against the horrible thought of a gunman entering the property.' Ron Baity, a pastor who founded a Wilkes County Christian private school in the 1970s, said 'every day we are horrified' at the prospect that a shooter could attack their school. 'I hear it said that innocent people could be killed if a shooter comes on the property and our staff is armed,' Baity said. 'The truth of the matter is, if we have no resistance against the individual who's armed, he can kill all of our staff, he can kill all of our students, and we have no way to protect anyone.' Amanda Lierman, a substitute teacher in Wake County with Moms Demand Action, said bringing guns into schools would only place an 'undue burden' on school staff. She was the only member of the public to speak against the bill. 'My friend and her sons experienced a shooting at their elementary school last year, when a staff administrator was shot and killed by their ex-husband,' Lierman said. 'My friend described the running students and the chaos that ensued — having more guns among that chaos would have increased the risk of more casualties.' After passing the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday, SB 280 will next be heard by the Senate Rules Committee, where it can then be scheduled for a vote by the full Senate.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
NC Republicans renew their support for Medicaid work requirements, while Democrats say ‘no'
Legislators were divided Tuesday over a move intended to smooth the way for North Carolina to require people who gained health insurance though Medicaid expansion to work. Republicans on the House Health Committee voted in favor of House Bill 491, which its sponsor, Rep. Donny Lambeth (R-Forsyth) described as a signal to Washington decisionmakers that state legislators support work requirements. Nearly all Democrats on the committee voted no. Rep. Carla Cunningham (D-Mecklenburg) abstained. Rep. Garland Pierce (D-Scotland) said after the committee meeting the bill wasn't 'fully vetted.' Rep. Becky Carney (D-Mecklenburg) said the bill 'wasn't ready for prime time,' though Lambeth 'did what he thought was right.' North Carolina's 2023 Medicaid expansion law already includes a provision requiring the state Department of Health and Human Services to pursue work requirements if it seems federal administrators will allow them. The federal government sets baseline requirements for Medicaid coverage and pays most of the bill. States must ask permission before changing their Medicaid programs. Under President Donald Trump's first administration, state requests to impose Medicaid work requirements were approved. Courts overturned some of those approvals and President Joe Biden's administration later rescinded others. Congressional budget-cutters are now considering work requirements as a way to save money in the Medicaid program. Along with work requirements and other cuts, Congressional Republicans are also considering a reduction in the 90% in funding support the federal government currently provides to states for people covered under Medicaid expansion. North Carolina's Medicaid expansion law includes a trigger that would end Medicaid expansion, which would withdraw health insurance from more than 600,000 people, if the federal government's support falls below 90%. None of the money for people insured under Medicaid expansion comes from state coffers. Lambeth's bill requires the state Department of Health and Human Services to tell the legislature how much money is needed to implement a work requirement and says it would be imposed regardless of another state law on income thresholds and eligibility categories. 'It basically reiterates what the current expansion bill already says, signaling to the folks in Washington we'd be supportive of that if we got to that point,' Lambeth told the committee. 'I'm hoping by signaling we're okay with a work requirement, they will get off the idea of changing our funding formula. If the funding formula is changed, even a small tenth of a percent, one percent, it is a major impact to North Carolina, and we hope we don't have to go down that path.' Lambeth has stated previously that a reduction in federal support would be 'a disaster.' Rep. Sarah Crawford (D-Wake) co-sponsored a bill that would get rid of the trigger. Under that bill, Medicaid expansion in North Carolina would be spared if the federal government's financial support falls below 90%. Crawford voted against the work requirement bill. 'There is no evidence that work requirements actually increase work participation,' Crawford said after the committee meeting. Most adults who use Medicaid as their insurance and are able to work already do. 'About eight percent of people on Medicaid who are able to work are not working, so it's a relatively small number of people. Those individuals typically have a number of barriers to employment that include a whole host of things — where they live, their health, access to transportation. All that we've seen in the past, when other states have tried to implement work requirements, it actually leads to be people being left without coverage.' Arkansas imposed a Medicaid work requirement for less than a year in 2018 before a judge ended it. About 18,000 people lost their health insurance, according to a study, and the work requirement did not lead to increased employment. Arkansans were not able to report their work hours due to lack of internet access, didn't know about the requirement, or didn't think it applied to them, a 2019 study said. Stateline reported Tuesday that between 4.6 million and 5.2 million adults ages 19 to 55 could lose their health care coverage under an emerging congressional Republican plan to impose Medicaid work requirements nationwide. Lambeth said after the meeting that the work requirement would cover people who gained insurance under Medicaid expansion. In that case, people with disabilities who are insured under special Medicaid programs would be exempt. Lambeth worked for years to extend Medicaid coverage to more adults, and for a long time he was one of the few Republicans in the legislature openly supporting it. He sponsored bills that were precursors to the 2023 Medicaid expansion law that included work requirements. Including the requirement for at least 90% federal funding in the 2023 expansion law was one of the conditions for winning greater Republican support, he said. 'The only way we got that bill approved was to have triggers in there,' Lambeth said. The 90% trigger and work requirements were necessary to 'cobble together enough Republican votes.'
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gabe Torres Act moves forward, would expand benefits for families of fallen responders
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Members of a North Carolina House committee approved to move a proposed bill forward that would support family members of fallen first responders. The Gabe Torres Act honors the life of Raleigh Police Officer Torres, one of five people killed in a mass shooting in October 2022 in the Hedingham neighborhood. Torres was shot in his vehicle while preparing to head to work. The House Bill would ultimately expand eligibility under the Public Safety Employees' Death Benefits Act to include individuals killed on their way to or from work. Rep. Sarah Crawford (D-Wake) said she first introduced a similar bill two years ago when she learned about the officer's death. 'I made a comment to another police officer about Officer Torres, and they informed me that because he was on his way to work, he would not be considered fallen in the line of duty. I just couldn't believe that,' said Crawford. According to state law, families are currently unable to receive death benefits of responders killed on their way to or from duty. After a long process, Crawford said Torres' family was eventually able to receive compensation. 'Jasmin, his wife, was just so grateful. She had been fighting to get him honored in that way … going through multiple petitions and appeals, and every time she made it to the next round, she had to relive the trauma of that day,' Crawford said. PREVIOUSLY: Widow of Raleigh officer killed in Hedingham shooting to receive worker's compensation While there was success, Crawford said their goal still hadn't been met. 'Between the House and the Senate, we were able to get that done for Officer Torres. Unfortunately, as the legislation got negotiated and a much large package of the budget, we were only able to get that done really to honor Officer Torres and not all of our law enforcement officers who make really challenging sacrifices every day,' said Crawford. It's part of the reason the representative said she stood in front of members of a State House committee Wednesday morning, hoping to broaden the scope of the law and clarify its language. Tim Bradley, the Executive Director for the North Carolina State Fire Association, was also there to share his support for House Bill 137. 'In the past, the law covered 'to and from training' — it never covered 'to and from duty,'' Bradley said. 'Officer Torres' loss of life brought forward a significant issue, and that is emergency first responders are often called back during storms, hurricanes, riots … and it's those times that are dangerous.' Matt Cooper, the president for the Raleigh Police Protective Association, said the proposed bill adds a layer of comfort. Whether off or on duty, going to or from work, Cooper said when an incident arises, those first responders have a reassurance for the protection of their family. The Gabe Torres Act will now head to an appropriations committee, but Crawford is optimistic it will pass to the House Floor for a full vote. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
