RALEIGH
Starting today, jailers across North Carolina must ask anyone charged with a serious crime about their immigration status, and if they find someone who is in the country illegally, they must notify federal authorities.
The goal of the new law, state legislators said, is to deport more illegal immigrants who commit crimes.
But law-enforcement officials and people involved in the immigration debate have contrasting predictions about how much practical effect the law will have.
"I don't think this law has a big impact on the population in our jail or in Forsyth County's handling of the immigration issues," said Sheriff Bill Schatzman of Forsyth County.
The immigration law is one of about 40 new state laws that were passed in 2007 and are taking effect today. The laws cover a range of diverse topics.
One law makes it easier for people who were adopted to connect with their birth parents.
Another law, passed in the midst of the nation's subprime-mortgage crisis, aims to protect North Carolina homeowners. It makes it tougher for lenders to issue questionable loans, and it provides homeowners with more legal recourse.
And two separate laws limit smoking in North Carolina: one bans smoking in state-owned buildings, and the other bans smoking in long-term-care centers.
The smoking ban in long-term-care centers was a response to a fatal fire in March in a Mocksville adult-care home.
Many of the other laws are small acts that make minor, technical changes. But the immigration law, which passed nearly unanimously in the N.C. General Assembly last summer, has stirred strong opinions on both sides of the immigration debate.
The law requires jailers to try to determine the residency status of anyone charged with a felony or with driving while impaired, either by asking the prisoner or by examining relevant documents. If it can't be determined that a prisoner is a legal resident or a U.S. citizen, the jailer must send a query through a special information network, which notifies federal authorities.
Schatzman said that federal immigration authorities are unlikely to have the resources to respond to every single query immediately, even if it is clear that a prisoner is an illegal immigrant. There is nothing in the new law that allows a jail to further detain an illegal immigrant.
"This new law that goes into effect requires us to make a different notification. It doesn't require (immigration authorities) to come back to us at all, and it does not allow us to prevent someone from making bail," Schatzman said.
Forsyth County is applying for a federal program that will train local officers to screen people for immigration status. That program, once enacted, will allow the county to crack down on illegal immigration more so than the new state law will, Schatzman said.
Tony Asion, the deputy director of El Pueblo Inc., a statewide advocacy group, said he is concerned that the law will increase racial profiling. He said that Hispanics, regardless of their immigration status, will be disproportionately targeted.
"We are basically picking on a certain group," Asion said. "Not everybody is really getting stopped and checked. There are some people that could be here undocumented that will never go through this process. To give you an example, a Canadian. Chances are, they're not going to get checked."
Asion said he also disagrees with doing blanket immigration checks of people as soon as they are charged -- before they have been proven guilty of any crime.
Ron Woodard, the director of N.C. Listen, which supports tougher enforcement of immigration laws, said he wishes that legislators had gone further. The law, on its own, won't have much effect, Woodard said, because local officers are not required to call Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and actively notify them of illegal immigrants.
Merely putting a query into the system is unlikely to trigger detainment procedures, Woodard said.
"If they're not required to call up ICE and say ‘Come get this person,' it's just not going to happen," Woodard said.
■ James Romoser can be reached at 919-210-6794 or at jromoser@wsjournal.com.
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