Statement on Governor Cooper’s veto of House Bill 10

The North Carolina Justice Center applauds Governor Cooper’s decision to veto House Bill 10, a bill that requires sheriffs to coordinate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and irresponsibly expands private school voucher funding.

RALEIGH (September 20, 2024) – Earlier today, Governor Cooper vetoed House Bill 10, a harmful anti-immigrant measure to which budget adjustments were added at the last minute, drastically expanding private school voucher funding and ignoring urgent needs of working North Carolinians.

HB 10 mandates local sheriffs notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when North Carolinians accused of certain crimes who are undocumented are in their custody. The bill further requires sheriffs to hold all persons in their custody for whom ICE issues a “detainer request,” for up to 48 hours, encouraging potentially unconstitutional detentions, eroding trust in law enforcement, and increasing the risk of deportation for our mixed status immigrant families. HB 10 fails to protect immigrants who are victims of crimes and discourages them from reporting and serving as witnesses due to fear of deportation and family separation.

In addition to the harms HB 10 will bring to our immigrant communities, the proposal fails to address the many needs of our public schools. Legislators could have increased pay for hardworking teachers and school staff, funded high quality pre-school slots, and provided public school students with universal free lunch and breakfast. Instead, the budget adjustment doubles down on private school voucher expansion that primarily benefits the wealthiest North Carolina families and provides no funding to address the still looming childcare crisis.  Given the extraordinary impact any loss of childcare capacity will have on working families and the legislature’s ongoing failure to constitutionally fund our schools, it is incredibly disappointing to see these vital issues for our communities and workforce go unaddressed.

“This proposal puts the interests of the wealthy few above the pressing needs of working parents, Black and Brown folks, people with low incomes, and our immigrant neighbors,” said Reggie Shuford, Executive Director of the NC Justice Center. “We thank Governor Cooper for his veto of House Bill 10 and for standing with immigrant communities, public schools, and working families.”

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