NC sanctuary cities are real
Center for Immigration Studies map shows where sanctuary policies are in play in North Carolina
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has released an updated map on "Sanctuary" cities across the United States.
North Carolina has nine counties where sanctuary policies are in play on the CIS map:
Buncombe County
Chatham County
Durham County
Forsyth County
Guilford County
Mecklenburg County
Orange County
Wake County
Watauga County
CIS describes sanctuary cities and jurisdictions as having "laws, ordinances, regulations, resolutions, policies, or other practices that obstruct immigration enforcement and shield criminals from ICE — either by refusing to or prohibiting agencies from complying with ICE detainers, imposing unreasonable conditions on detainer acceptance, denying ICE access to interview incarcerated aliens, or otherwise impeding communication or information exchanges between their personnel and federal immigration officers."
Areas deemed sanctuary cities aren’t always where illegal aliens land, especially when it comes to crime. Take Aurora, Colorado, for example. Nearby Denver is a sanctuary city, yet the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has made Aurora its base of operations.
Tren de Aragua isn’t just taking over far away cities and states, the gang has been found to be operating in North Carolina.
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, the Democratic candidate for governor, has said he doesn't believe sanctuary cities are real, per an ad put out by the Republican Governors Association.
The ad shows a clip of Stein in a media interview stating, “There are no sanctuary cities in North Carolina.”
More To The Story
CIS' map update added 170 new sanctuary city/county locations. Areas of North Carolina were included in those additions; Chatham County, Guilford County, and Watauga County.
The map update notes thousands of illegal aliens have been released from custody due to sanctuary policies.
Over the years, more than 10,000 criminal aliens have been released by local authorities due to sanctuary policies, and many of these criminal aliens have subsequently been arrested for additional crimes. In one eight-month period documented by ICE in 2014-15, of about 8,000 criminal aliens released by sanctuary jurisdictions, about 1,800 offenders were arrested again within the eight-month period for 7,500 new crimes.
CIS' website includes an op-ed from this past March questioning how Awet Hagos, a man on the terror watch list, made it all the way to North Carolina before being arrested.
Hagos' arrest made national headlines and Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, also running for governor, sent a letter to President Biden asking for more information. To date, it does not appear the Biden administration has responded.
There has been promotion of the idea that illegal aliens contribute "$100 billion" in taxes" and "$26 billion" to social security floating around in social media posts and in Democratic candidate talking points. The source of that data is the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP).
CIS offers an article dismantling some of ITEP's narrative, noting the cost of benefits received by illegal aliens outweighs what is paid in taxes or social security.
Based on our analysis of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, we estimated that 59 percent of households headed by illegal immigrants use one or more major welfare programs, costing roughly $42 billion. In addition to consuming welfare, illegal immigrants place significant burdens on public education. Given the average cost per student, the estimated four million children (mostly U.S.-born) of illegal immigrants in public schools cost $68 billion in 2019.The combined cost of welfare and public education already exceeds ITEP’s $97 billion estimate of illegal immigrant taxes paid. Of course, illegal immigrants impose many other costs as well, including on “congestible” public goods, such as transportation, infrastructure, and law enforcement.
CIS has also noted in other posts on its website that illegal aliens are contributing to the housing shortage in nearly every state — a shortage that Vice President Harris says she will fix with a $40 billion investment (with no details) and by offering $25k down payment money to first time homebuyers (again, with no details released).
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