Stein vetoes immigration, gun bills, setting up likely battle with NC's GOP-led legislature

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein vetoed a pair of immigration-enforcement bills Friday, setting up the Democratic governor’s first override battle with the state’s Republican-led legislature.

Stein rejected Senate Bill 153, which would require state and local government agencies to cooperate with deportation efforts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. He also vetoed House Bill 318, which was intended to make adjustments to an existing immigration law. Stein also vetoed Senate Bill 50, which would eliminate concealed carry permits, saying it undermines responsible gun ownership, and would make the work of law enforcement more difficult.

Lawmakers sent the measures to Stein last week. Stein called portions of the House measure unconstitutional.

Supporters say the state needs to help the federal government with deportations. Opponents say the measures will split up families and harm the state's economy.

The vetoes — which follow protests over the state bills and a broader national debate over immigration enforcement — are expected to test the power of Republicans in the legislature, where the GOP is one seat shy of a veto-proof majority.

Stein vetoes bill to allow concealed carry without a permit

Republicans lost their supermajority in the state House in the 2024 elections. Republicans need at least one Democratic vote to override the veto, provided all Republicans in the chamber vote together.

Senate Bill 153 passed through the state House and state Senate along party lines. House Bill 318 received support from one Democrat: state Rep. Carla Cunningham of Mecklenburg County.

The bills are top priorities for Republican legislative leaders. They were introduced by Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell. Berger and Hall said they intended to seek override votes in their respective chambers.

Berger said Friday's action "proved where his allegiances are."

"He'd rather prioritize his far-left donors and their dangerous open-border policies over the citizens of North Carolina who are desperately pleading for us to put an end to the illegal immigration crisis," Berger said in a statement.

Added Hall: "Governor Stein has made one thing clear today: he stands with criminal illegal aliens and the most radical elements of his party’s base over the safety and security of North Carolinians."

ICE cooperation

North Carolina already requires county sheriffs, who operate all of the state’s jails, to work with ICE. Senate Bill 153 goes substantially further.

It would require city, county and state government officials — not just law enforcement — to cooperate with ICE. And it would allow cities, counties and the University of North Carolina system to be sued for potentially millions of dollars if they don’t.

Those new rules, if they become law, would help ICE expand its deportation efforts beyond people with criminal convictions by gaining easy access to a number of government agencies and buildings including public schools, social service offices and public universities — including the hospitals and health clinics run by UNC and East Carolina University in dozens of counties statewide.

The bill would put Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek in charge of investigating schools and other government entities to gauge their level of cooperation. Anyone he deems to have not been fully cooperative with ICE would be opened up to lawsuits.

The measure would also order anyone in charge of taking applications for government benefits — for food, housing, education or other aid — with checking the immigration status of everyone who applies.

Supporters say it’ll ensure no immigrants are getting benefits they shouldn’t. Critics say it’ll slow down the process, delaying help for eligible people who need it, and that it’ll also scare immigrant parents from applying for benefits that their U.S. citizen children qualify for.

"At a time when our law enforcement is already stretched thin, this bill takes state law enforcement officers away from their existing state duties and forces them to act as federal immigration agents,"Stein said in a statement. "Furthermore, under current law, people without lawful immigration status already are prevented from receiving Medicaid, SNAP, Section 8, and other benefits.”

Immigration checks

Stein also rejected House Bill 318, which made adjustments to the previously passed law requiring sheriffs to work with ICE. Republicans said there were loopholes in that bill, passed last year, that needed to be fixed.

The 2024 law directs sheriffs in North Carolina to check immigration status for people taken into custody on serious criminal charges and notify ICE if their status can't be determined. It also directed sheriffs to cooperate with ICE by holding these detainees for 48 hours after they would otherwise be released.

The new legislation rejected by Stein on Friday sets out in more detail the timeframes that sheriffs must follow in notifying ICE of a detainee's scheduled release and tightens up other language some sheriffs have been accused of interpreting too loosely.

Stein said he vetoed it because it violates the Constitution.

"It would require sheriffs to unconstitutionally detain people for up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released," Stein said. "The Fourth Circuit is clear that local law enforcement officers cannot keep people in custody solely based on a suspected immigration violation. But let me be clear: anyone who commits a serious crime in North Carolina must be prosecuted and held accountable regardless of their immigration status.”

House Bill 318 also expands the charges that trigger an immigration check. Under the 2024 law, only people arrested for violent felonies and misdemeanors were subject to an ICE check. The new legislation adds a range of other crimes, including drunk driving, and requires magistrates to send an arrestee's fingerprints to ICE and hold them for two hours before pretrial release.

Immigrant advocacy groups say the law already violates the rights of people who've been charged with a crime but not found guilty. The legislation, they say, would subject even more arrestees to it.

“I support the bill’s efforts to require sheriffs to contact federal immigration authorities about people in their custody charged with sexual battery, armed robbery, arson, assault on public officials and court personnel, and other dangerous crimes,” Stein said in his statement. “People who commit these crimes should be held accountable, whether or not they are here without legal authorization, and those charged with serious offenses ought to receive increased scrutiny from federal immigration officials.”

Concealed weapons

In addition to eliminating concealed carry permits, Senate Bill 50 would also drop the age to carry a concealed weapon from 21 to 18 and would eliminate training requirements that currently come with earning a permit.

"Authorizing teenagers to carry a concealed weapon with no training whatsoever is dangerous," Stein said. "The bill would also make the job of a law enforcement officer more difficult and less safe. We can and should protect the right to bear arms without recklessly endangering law enforcement officers and our people.”

Berger said: "Law-abiding North Carolinians shouldn't have to jump through hoops to effectively exercise their Second Amendment rights. It's past time for us to join the majority of states that recognize constitutional carry."

WRAL Capitol Bureau Chief Laura Leslie, and WRAL state government reporters Paul Specht, Brian Murphy and Will Doran, contributed to this report.