PENDER COUNTY — Commissioners struck down a resolution to participate in a federal program deputizing local officers to enforce federal immigration law amid concerns about increased costs on the local government. This came as the county sheriff and area residents spoke against the move.
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A resolution of support before the Pender County Board of Commissioners Tuesday night called for the local sherriff’s office to enter the federal 287(g) program, created as part of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act.
Its goal was to allow designated state and local law enforcement agencies to execute certain functions of federal immigration law, including issuing charging documents to initiate the deportation process, interviewing individuals on their citizenship status, and transfer noncitizens into ICE custody.
The resolution indicated: “The Pender County Board of Commissioners support the Pender County Sheriff’s Office in entering into a 287(g) Memorandum of Agreement with ICE.”
The motion to kill it, however, passed 3-1. Commissioner Brent Springer was absent, but Brad George, Ken Smith and Jerry Groves voted in favor, while chair Randy Burton — who initiated the county proposal to enter a 287(g) agreement — voted against it. Burton contended the program would increase public safety by ensuring the incarceration of violent offenders. He added the sheriff could negotiate the agreement to avoid burdening the county with more costs. Commissioner Brent Springer was not in attendance.
President Donald Trump signed a 2017 executive order directing the federal government to pursue more 287(g) agreements. He issued a similar order last month, as well as a directive allowing ICE to carry out raids in schools, hospitals and churches.
Cutler said he agreed with Pender County Schools Superintendent Brad Breedlove to not allow out ICE raids in the county’s schools.
“There’s no need for a big disruptive raid to go on at a school,” Cutler said. “We can enforce the law, serve warrants but do it in a legal manner and do it in a safe manner.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement currently has 135 formal 287(g) agreements with law enforcement agencies across 21 states, including 15 in North Carolina.
Individual agreements are negotiated between the federal government and local agencies. Cutler noted there are several types of 287(g) agreements, including:
- The Warrant Service Officer program allowing local officers to execute immigration law warrants on incarcerated offenders
- The Task Force Model allowing local officers to carry out limited immigration enforcement and screening
- The Jail Enforcement Model authorizing local agents to identify and process offenders with criminal or pending charges
Sheriff Alan Cutler told the board county law enforcement was already coordinating closely with ICE and expressed concerns committing toa program would be a financial burden.
“When you get into housing federal inmates — we’re not equipped with that right now,” he said. “There may be the need to add additional personnel.”
Cutler said the sheriff’s office already has the capacity to access federal immigration databases to identify incarcerated individuals’ citizenship status and is frequently sharing information with ICE.
Cutler also pledged not to conduct raids in schools or churches as well and received applause from the audience, 10 of whom spoke at the meeting. The sheriff thanked residents and commissioners for their interest in the issue.
“I appreciate the support and I do believe it was the intent,” Cutler said at the meeting. “But at this point in time I would not be signing an MOU (memorandum of agreement) with ICE.”
Residents’ concerns included the demonization of immigrants, opposition to ICE policies, the economic impact of deportations, and limited resources of the county government.
“While many try to paint our humans as criminals or moochers,” Burgaw resident Samantha Worrel said. “The reality is American policy and intervention in other countries has contributed to so many having to leave their homes and seek shelter and opportunity here in America. These are hard workers who love their families in the same way that you all love yours.”
The U.S. has carried out regime change and destabilization operations in a broad range of Latin American countries, including the top countries of origin of illegal immigration in North Carolina. A 2023 study found CIA interventions in Latin American countries caused declines in income, rule of law, democracy, and civil liberties.
Several people in the audience argued the program would hurt community relations with law enforcement.
“We keep hearing how dangerous immigrants are,” resident Alice Southerland said. “But from all the research I’ve done, percentage-wise more crimes are committed by U.S. citizens than by those coming to the United States.”
A 2024 National Bureau of Economic Research study found immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S. born citizens.
Former Mecklenburg Sheriff Jim Pendergraph was the first to use the “task force model” of the 287(g) program in 2006, allowing local officers to screen for violations of immigration law. He then worked to expand the program to other local agencies as chief of ICE’s Office of State and Local Coordination. Pendergraph now works as a consultant for law enforcement contractors Axon and Taser International.
“I’ve done a lot of research and I’ve received numerous emails — 50 or 60 emails, which I appreciate the community having input,” Commissioner Brad George said at the meeting. “Looking at this, I’m really cautious about our county entering something that was developed in 1996. You only have [135] law enforcement agencies across the country in it currently from a high of 280.”
George said the primary reason he found agencies had recently dropped the program is due to financial impacts; Mecklenburg and Wake counties terminated their 287(g) programs in 2018 amid scrutiny of cost burden on local governments and civil rights violations.
The federal government covers some money to administer the program, such as for training, but generally does not fully reimburse personnel and facility detention expenses. North Carolina local governments spent $81.7 million supporting 287(g) programs from 2009 to 2019, according to a 2019 NC Justice Center analysis.
The Department of Homeland Security ended Alamance County’s 287(g) program after a Department of Justice investigation found the county’s officers engaged in racial profiling of Latinos.
New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Lt. Jerry Brewer told Port City Daily Sheriff Ed McMahon has opposed the county’s participation in 287(g) for the same reasons as Cutler.
“We have been working with ICE detainers for a number of years now,” Sheriff Cutler informed the Pender commissioners Tuesday. “Well before I even came into office. And we plan on continuing to do that.”
Cutler was elected as Pender County’s sheriff in 2018. Rep. Carson Smith (R-Pender) was the county’s previous sheriff from 2002 to 2018. Smith was a primary sponsor of House Bill 10, legislation passed last year requiring North Carolina sheriffs to notify ICE of the legal status of individuals charged with certain felony and misdemeanor offenses. The law also requires law enforcement to comply with ICE requests to detain people suspected of being in the country illegally for up to 48 hours.
Smith is now a self-employed public safety advisor, according to his 2024 financial disclosures. He reported income from Alabama-based law enforcement software-firm OCV LLC, which created apps for Pender County Emergency Management, New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office and Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office.
Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office is one of 15 North Carolina law enforcement agencies included in ICE’s list of participating 287(g) entities. BCSO’s 2020 287(g) resolution gives ICE delegated Brunswick law enforcement agents authority to serve warrants of arrest and removal against designated offenders at the time of release from incarceration. However, BCSO public information officer Emily Flax said the county is not participating in the program.
“What is online is misleading,” she said. “While we do honor ICE detainers, we are not an ‘official’ 287g county. There are certain steps required by ICE in order to be an official participant (such as assigning officers to facilitate the program and specialized training for officers) and we have not done that.”
Cutler said Tuesday he was open to rewording the Pender County resolution for the commissioners to support the sheriff’s office cooperation with ICE. Commissioner Ken Smith raised a motion to “kill this line item” until the sheriff could participate in a new draft of the resolution.
Tips or comments? Email journalist Peter Castagno at peter@localdailymedia.com.
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