Former North Carolina Governor and Democratic Senate candidate Roy Cooper has a troubling history of being soft on crime and supporting illegal immigration. In 2019, Cooper vetoed legislation that required North Carolina sheriffs to cooperate with ICE.
"This legislation is simply about scoring partisan political points and using fear to divide North Carolina," Cooper wrote when he vetoed the bill. "As the former top law enforcement officer of our state, I know that current law allows the state to jail and prosecute dangerous criminals regardless of immigration status. This bill, in addition to being unconstitutional, weakens law enforcement in North Carolina by mandating sheriffs to do the job of federal agents, using local resources that could hurt their ability to protect their counties."
Now that's coming back to haunt Cooper again.
Marvin Ramirez Torres, an illegal alien from El Salvador, was arrested in Asheville, North Carolina and convicted of felony indecent liberties against a child. But because of Cooper's veto, an ICE detainer for Torres was not honored, and Torres was released back into the community by Cooper's fellow Democrats just months after that veto.
Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller, who obeyed Cooper's orders not to cooperate with ICE, was also appointed by Cooper to his 'soft-on-crime task force' and to the State Judicial Council under the guise of 'helping communities.'
Democrats in Buncombe County even wrote a letter to then-Governor Cooper, thanking him for protecting criminal illegal aliens like Torres and for supporting Sheriff Miller.
Here's some of that letter (emphasis added):
We write to you as Buncombe County Commissioners to express support for your pledged veto of HB370, an unconstitutional bill that would mandate that NC Sheriffs honor Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers.
HB370 would make it mandatory for NC Sheriffs to comply with ICE detainers, in direct contradiction to the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office local policy of noncompliance. Because these detainers are not tied to criminal cases, they would require local sheriffs to hold individuals without probable cause, in violation of their constitutional rights. Making sheriffs comply also erodes the community trust in local law enforcement, decreases the voluntary reporting of crime, and spreads fear throughout our immigrant communities.
The people of Buncombe County duly elected Sheriff Quentin Miller under the mandate to fulfill his promise to keep the full community safe and specifically to not cooperate with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Our immigrant community must be able to trust and call on local law enforcement when they are in need or are in danger. Breaking that trust – as HB370 would - endangers people's safety.
Thankfully, ICE still arrested Torres and removed him from the community.
However, it's incredibly revealing the lengths to which Democrats like Roy Cooper will go to protect illegal aliens, even those who have been convicted of harming children.
"Illegal child sex predators like Torres were released from jail and let back into North Carolina's communities as the direct result of Roy Cooper's weak, soft-on-crime agenda. Cooper puts criminal illegals above North Carolinians' safety," said NRSC Regional Press Secretary Nick Puglia.
Roy Cooper wants to take these soft-on-crime policies to D.C., and North Carolina voters must stop him.