NC Senate sets up votes for bills targeting Attorney General Jeff Jackson, immigration, cell phones in schools

Three high-profile bills passed their final committee hurdle in the state Senate Thursday, setting them up for full-chamber votes next week.

Cell phones in schools: Senate Bill 55 would require school districts all over the state to implement policies banning the use of mobile devices during class time. Other states have implemented similar bans in recent years, especially as teachers have complained of disruption in the classroom. But some parents object to their children not having access to cell phones.

Lawsuit ban: Senate Bill 58 would forbid the state's attorney general from suing the president over any executive orders, unless the Republican-led legislature orders a lawsuit to be filed. It comes after Democratic Attorney General Jeff Jackson has sued over three of the executive orders signed in the last month by Republican President Donald Trump.

Immigration crackdown: Senate Bill 153 would essentially deputize thousands of state employees as immigration police, ordering them to check the immigration status of anyone they interact with in the course of their normal duties. The bill would also require public universities to work with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents who are investigating any of their students, employees or anyone else. And it would open up city and county governments to lawsuits if they didn't cooperate with ICE.

Immigation debate

Republican lawmakers said the immigration bill would ensure that immigants who are in the country without permissoin aren't receiving state-funded benefits, and that it will make it easier to identify and deport people here illegally.

"This bill would require only those who are eligible for those benefits should receive them," Sen. Buck Newton, R-Wilson, said Wednesday. “I would hope that this is something that everyone would agree with."

Advocacy groups for immigrant communities, as well as other critics, say it will lead to racial profiling against non-white people regardless of their immigration status — and that it could harm children who are U.S. citizens but who have undocumented parents.

There are nearly 1 million immigrants living in North Carolina, including an estimated 325,000 without legal status, as of 2022, according to the Pew Research Center. Many of them work in construction, maintenance, agriculture and service jobs.

The bill was sponsored by Republican Senate leader Phil Berger, who rarely sponsors any bills. It comes as he's already facing a 2026 primary challenge from the right. Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page is seeking to unseat Berger, challenging him as insufficiently conservative. Berger has led the Senate ever since Republicans took control in 2011.

No more Trump lawsuits?

Since being sworn in as attorney general last month, Jackson has challenged the constitutionality of three of Trump's executive orders. He's fighting Trump's efforts to:

• Slash funding for medical and scientific research.
• Allow a private group led by billionaire Elon Musk to access people's private information.
• End birthright citizenship.

So far, Jackson and fellow Democratic attorneys general have won the early stages of all those lawsuits, succeeding in blocking Trump's orders from going into effect.

Sen. Tim Moffitt, R-Henderson, is the sponsor of the bill that would ban Jackson from launching or joining such lawsuits on the state's behalf. He said the attorney general's office has taken on too many duties and the legislature needs to assert itself and take away more of its power. Last last year the legislature also banned banned Jackson from saying that anything the legislature does is unconstitutional, and banned him from taking stances in other lawsuit that Republican lawmakers disagree with.

Democrats say the new idea is hypocritical, politically motivated and could also backfire, if executive orders that harm North Carolina's economy or job market are allowed to go into place.

Sen. Julie Mayfield, D-Buncombe, on Thursday questioned what the legislature would do if Jackson simply ignored them and kept doing what he thought was necessary to represent the best interests of the state. "The attorney general is an independently elected office," she said. "What happens if he ignores this? You can’t impeach him."

The legislature has previously used the state budget to punish fellow politicians. When now-Gov. Josh Stein was in his first year as attorney general in 2017, GOP lawmakers slashed his budget in what was seen as retaliation for litigation Stein had filed against Trump during Trump's first term in office. The cuts forced Stein to lay off staff.

On Thursday, Moffitt said lawmakers could go even further to retaliate against Jackson — if it came to that — and might simply repeal every state law that gives the attorney general any powers or duties.

"Just zero it out," Moffitt said. "That way, the attorney general is just a feckless, empty shell who has no ability to do anything."

Stein, DAs, law enforcement: Cuts to DOJ budget will harm public safety