Voters in North Carolina Hand Trump’s Deportation Agenda a Major Defeat
The current sheriff’s loss should send a message nationwide: If you pursue anti-immigrant policies, voters will hold you accountable.
By Sarah Gillooly, Director of Political Strategy and Advocacy, ACLU of North Carolina
Mecklenburg County voters went to the polls on Tuesday to vote in a local sheriff’s race that commanded national attention. At stake was whether the county would continue a controversial Trump administration program known as 287(g), which deputizes local law enforcement to act as federal immigration officers and has led to the deportation of more than 15,000 Mecklenburg county residents over the last 12 years.
Last night, Mecklenburg County voters demanded justice, accountability, and an end to the program, voting overwhelmingly to end this discriminatory policy that has led to widespread racial profiling, civil rights abuses, and families being torn apart. The current Mecklenburg County Sheriff, Irwin Carmichael, strongly defended his 287(g) partnership and campaigned to continue using his deputies to assist in Trump’s deportation force. His two challengers, both former Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers, pledged to end the county’s partnership with federal immigration officials.
With so much on the line for civil liberties, the ACLU and our community partners engaged in a first-of-its-kind campaign in this Democratic primary to educate voters about the candidates’ positions on immigrants’ rights and other vital issues, including solitary confinement of juveniles and independent investigations of misconduct in the sheriff’s office. We invested $175,000 in radio ads, phone calls, canvassing, and other efforts to directly reach tens of thousands of voters about the civil liberties issues at stake in this race.
The truth is that anti-immigrant policies do not make communities safer. Under Mecklenburg County’s 287(g) program, people were detained for minor offenses like traffic violations and even, in one instance, catching undersized fish and put into deportation proceedings. Instances like this make communities reluctant to report crimes for fear that people they know and love could be deported.
Empowered with this information, four out of five voters rejected the county’s harmful and divisive anti-immigrant agenda and cast a ballot for change. Sheriff Carmichael himself said afterward that he believed 287(g) was the decisive issue in his defeat.
These results show that voters care passionately about civil rights issues, from police accountability to the rights of immigrants, and that they will vote when they see that their rights depend on it.
The overwhelming rejection of Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda should also send a clear message to local officials across the country: If you pursue anti-immigrant policies, voters can — and will — hold you accountable.
