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North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed a bill that would have significantly expanded funding for private school vouchers and mandated local sheriffs’ cooperation with federal immigration authorities on detaining illegal immigrants.
The passed version of House Bill 10 that Cooper vetoed on Friday called for $248 million in nonrecurring funds to fully fund the waitlist for Opportunity Scholarships, which provide financial assistance for students attending private schools. Additionally, the bill allocated $215 million in recurring funds to continue supporting the program for future fiscal years.
The bill also included various budget adjustments, additional funding for special needs programs, provisions to enhance broadband access in rural areas, as well as a mandate for local sheriffs to hold noncitizens charged with specific crimes for 48 hours and notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Cooper made his objections to private school vouchers clear during a press conference on Friday, in which he argued that the bill would harm rural public schools in particular.
“This bill takes public taxpayer dollars from the public schools and gives it to private school vouchers that will be used by wealthy families,“ he said. ”All public schools will be hurt by the legislature wasting its planned $4 billion of the public’s money over the next decade with rural public schools being hurt the worst.
“This money should be used to improve our public schools by raising teacher pay and investing in public school students. Therefore, I veto the bill.”
Mike Long, president of the school choice advocacy Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, swiftly responded to the veto, defending the Opportunity Scholarship Program and calling for an override of the veto by the state’s General Assembly.
Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly have the ability to override Cooper’s veto because they currently hold a supermajority.
The vetoed bill also included several provisions regarding local law enforcement cooperation with ICE. The bill stipulates that, upon receiving an ICE detainer and administrative warrant for an illegal immigrant charged with certain crimes, sheriffs must hold such individuals in custody for up to 48 hours or until ICE takes custody, whichever comes first.
Also, when local law enforcement is unable to determine whether a person charged with certain crimes is a legal resident of the United States, the bill requires law enforcement to query ICE to verify the individual’s immigration status. Further, the bill shields local law enforcement agencies and officers from criminal and civil liability for actions taken in compliance with the ICE detainer and administrative warrant process.
Critics of these provisions have argued that they would strain relations between law enforcement and immigrant communities. This argument, also raised by opponents of similar legislation elsewhere in the country, rests on the notion that enforcing immigration detainers could undermine trust between law enforcement and immigrant communities, making those communities less likely to report crimes and cooperate with police.
Republicans in North Carolina have been trying to pass a bill requiring sheriffs to cooperate with ICE since 2019 but were vetoed by Cooper in 2019 and again in 2022.