Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 24 illegal aliens during enforcement actions in Charlotte this month.
ICE gave details of the arrests but did not include names.
13 aggravated felonies or other violent offenses.
Three illegal firearms or weapons offenses.
Two MS-13 gang member affiliation cases.
One assault on a federal officer.
Five property crimes.
11 DWI charges.
As noted in the release, the arrests included two members of the violent MS-13 gang, which President Trump has designated as a terrorist organization.
The Charlotte actions follow the February arrest in Raleigh of a member of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. That gang is also on the list of terrorist organizations.
Additionally, around the same time as the Charlotte arrests were taking place, a Haitian national was arrested for on three counts of first degree murder in Fayetteville. That individual was in the country under former President Biden’s Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela migrant flights program.
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The arrests took place with the help of FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — but with no assistance from the Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden, according to ICE.
“Of these criminal aliens, six had active immigration detainers which the Charlotte Mecklenburg Sheriff's Office had not honored,” ICE’s press release states.
Per that release, “There are 18 additional targeted aliens still at large who also had detainers that were not honored. ICE has been unable to locate those individuals, and they remain at large and pose a potential danger to the community. These aliens could have been safely and efficiently transferred into ICE custody if their detainers had been honored.”
According to Spectrum News, McFadden responded by saying he can’t honor the detainers unless they were signed by a judge.
"We do not honor civil detainers because they are not signed by a judge. I must follow the law. If a judge orders me to release someone, I cannot legally detain them," McFadden said.
In the same Spectrum News report, McFadden claimed 163 undocumented immigrants were kept at the detention center for 48 hours, but ICE didn’t come get them. Maybe that’s because ICE didn’t know; McFadden has previously stated that per House Bill 10, he doesn’t have to call ICE to tell them about illegal alien prisoner releases.
McFadden’s remarks were not missed by the General Assembly and on Mar. 5 House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) filed House Bill 318, The Criminal Illegal Alien Enforcement Act.
Without mentioning McFadden by name, Hall, who authored House Bill 10, said a press release his bill will “close loopholes.”
In my report at North State Journal on the bill, a key modification clearly targets McFadden by requiring facility administrators to notify ICE within two hours of when a prisoner would normally be released.
Hall’s bill also expands the list of offenses that require state law enforcement cooperation with ICE, such as burglaries and theft, embezzlement, fraud, forgery, and drunk driving.
A separate bill (House Bill 261) which ups criminal penalties for certain crimes has a section specifically related to illegal aliens.
Under that bill, a person convicted of any felony (except Class A felonies) who was previously denied admission to, excluded, deported, or removed from the United States would receive a felony charge one class higher than their underlying offense. Additionally, if the person was previously convicted under federal law for illegal reentry, the enhancement would be two felony classes higher.
Both bills are sitting in the House Judiciary 2 Committee at the moment. That committee meets this upcoming Tuesday at 1 p.m. and House Bill 318 is on the agenda for that meeting. If approved by Judiciary 2, House Bill 318 heads to the Rules Committee, which is the last hurdle before a floor vote.
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