NC Democrat Says Immigrants Must ‘Assimilate’ While Supporting ICE Bill

Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly, along with one Democrat, overruled Gov. Josh Stein’s veto of an immigration enforcement bill on Tuesday.

State Rep. Carla Cunningham (D-Mecklenburg), the sole Democrat, argued in remarks about the bill that “all cultures are not equal.”

“Some immigrants come and believe they can function in isolation, refusing to adapt. They have come to our country for many reasons, but I suggest they must assimilate,” she said.

Her vote was critical to the motion, creating the three-fifths majority required to override a veto. The overruling passed 72-48 in the House and 30-19 in the Senate of a solidly Republican-controlled legislature. This undid Gov. Stein’s veto of House Bill 318, which he signed in June. 

The bill, titled “The Criminal Illegal Alien Enforcement Act,” builds on legislation passed in 2024 that orders local sheriff’s offices to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It sought to require local law enforcement agencies to check the immigration status of everyone they detain, as well as to detain anyone in the country illegally for 48 hours so ICE can pick them up.

The legislation also looks to require that 48-hour window to begin when the person would have otherwise been released, instead of beginning when they were first detained. Additionally, it adds some minor crimes, such as impaired driving, to the list of charges for which ICE detainers must be honored.

Gov. Stein vetoed the bill due to believing this extra detainment time is unconstitutional.

“It would require sheriffs to unconstitutionally detain people for up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released. The Fourth Circuit is clear that local law enforcement officers cannot keep people in custody solely based on a suspected immigration violation,” Gov. Stein said in June.

House Bill 318 was only one of 14 vetoes the legislature attempted to undo on Tuesday. Other vetoes overridden include laws to repeal emissions goals for Duke Energy, to bar public agencies from releasing information about donors and members, to allow employees in private schools to carry firearms, to require votes on any state regulation that would cost more than $20 million within five years, and to recognize exclusively male and female genders in state law and restrict changing the gender on one’s birth certificate.

All of these overrides required at least one Democrat to vote with Republicans to gain a three-fifths majority. Several of these Democratic defections came from state Rep. Cunningham, along with a few from state Rep. Shelly Willingham (D-Edgecombe), state Rep. Nasif Majeed (D-Mecklenburg), and state Rep. Cecil Brockman (D-Guilford).

“It was my ancestors who came over as slaves, built this country with a strain on their backs. Their sweat poured from their bodies in the rice fields, the cotton fields and the tobacco farms for this country. Lived as servants, and was the footstool–I said the footstool–for far too many feet to step on. So today, if you ask me to line up behind another group of people to raise awareness about their plight, I unapologetically say no,” state. Cunningham said in defense of her vote.

State Rep. Marcia Morey (D-Durham) responded, saying the bill “is scapegoating.”

“It is scapegoating immigrants. Research has shown us that the immigrant community is less likely to commit crimes than the US citizen,” she continued. “That is a fact.”