Feds and Local Sheriff clash over holding undocumented immigrants

CHARLOTTE, NC – Immigration Customs Enforcement has announced it has arrested 24 people between March 1st and 8th here in the Charlotte area. Federal officials say the number could be higher, but they claim Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden refuses to keep undocumented immigrants who have been flagged by the feds in jail. Sheriff McFadden says he is willing to partner for legal orders.

The latest round of arrests are concerning to some advocates.

“This is part of a broader strategy by the president to create shock and awe in our community,” Hector Vaca, Immigrant Justice Director at Action NC said. “It’s really more about trying to control the narrative in order to create this idea that immigrants are really criminals when they’re not.”

In a press release, ICE says the arrests resulted in 35 charges ranging from aggravated felonies to DWI. The same release also calls out Sheriff McFadden for not complying with immigration detainers.

McFadden tells WCCB he will always follow legal orders and a detainer is not enough to legally transfer someone.

“They cannot remove anybody from my detention center without a writ, a federal warrant, federal complaint, or an indictment. So simply telling people that there’s an detainer Well, yes, there’s a detainer. They put out 70,000 detainers in the last couple of months,” Sheriff McFadden said.

Sheriff McFadden also says taxpayers bear the financial burden of holding undocumented immigrants.

“I sent an email to ICE’s Atlanta Field ERO Office regarding the financial burden the detainers place on taxpayers and the importance of informing the sheriff’s office of their true intentions on whether they are going to pick up these undocumented immigrants or seek federal, criminal charges,” Sheriff McFadden said. “For every person that we’re holding is $398 to the taxpayers of Mecklenburg County estimate as of December 1st, $68,000 in taxpayers money.”

Vaca says as ICE ramps up arrests, Action NC is hosting Know Your Rights workshops with the next one scheduled for the spring season virtually.

“Being in this country is not actually a criminal offense. Being undocumented in the country, is an administrative offense,” Vaca said. “We’re helping people to understand their rights, to understand what’s going on in the national level and understand what they can do and how they can get engaged in our community.”

ICE says they are actively looking for 18 undocumented people in the Charlotte area that they say were previously in Sheriff custody. ICE says they could pose a potential danger to the community. The Sheriff says the feds have not provided him a list of people they are looking for at this time.