Sauce for the goose: NC sheriffs now oppose mandate to help ICE - but it's closer to becoming law

[friendly_iconoclast]

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article228789969.html

NC sheriffs now oppose mandate to help ICE – but it’s closer to becoming law

...House Bill 370 won approval from the state House on Wednesday just hours after the association announced its opposition.

The bill would require law enforcement agencies across the state to comply with detainer requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement...

...After the House vote, Speaker Tim Moore’s office published a news release that included quotes from Rep. Destin Hall, a Caldwell County Republican.

“These sanctuary sheriffs are simply putting partisan politics ahead of public safety,” Hall said.

Compare to:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10672014

https://www.abqjournal.com/1300209/ag-directs-sheriffs-chiefs-to-enforce-gun-law.html

AG directs sheriffs, chiefs to enforce gun law

SANTA FE — Attorney General Hector Balderas is warning sheriffs and police chiefs throughout New Mexico that they risk legal liability if they refuse to enforce the state’s new background checks law for gun sales.

The legislation, which takes effect this summer, emerged as one of the most fiercely debated proposals of the 2019 session, with sheriffs and their deputies turning out in force to testify against it. Some said they simply wouldn’t enforce it even if it became law.

But Balderas, a Democrat, sent a letter to every law enforcement agency in the state Thursday, warning them of a legal obligation to uphold the requirements outlined in Senate Bill 8, regardless of whether they agree with the legislation.

“As law enforcement officials,” Balderas said, “we do not have the freedom to pick and choose which state laws we enforce.”

One wonders what some of those that replied to the following threads might have to say about this

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142272102

Washington state: at least 20 county sheriffs refuse to enforce new gun laws

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211974552#post1

Lock him up.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211974552#post7

Fire all police who refuse to enforce the law

Fire them, lock them up, fine them. Fucking Nazis!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1172207848#post3

Let's hope his wish is granted

[MarvinGardens]

1. I think the issue is

these are state laws. If it's a federal law that a sherrif is refusing to enforce, and there is no state equivalent to that law, then the sheriff is not necessarily bound to enforce it (though interpretations vary).

But the county sheriffs in the US receive their power from their state constitutions as I understand it. If their state legislatures pass a law that passes muster under their state constitution, then they are bound to enforce it. Right?

[yagotme]

2. "...(B)ound to enforce it."

That is the key, here, I believe. Ever heard of anyone getting a verbal warning for a speeding ticket, and someone else getting the max fine? One person getting arrested for public intoxication, and a different person getting a ride home? There has always been selective enforcement, at all levels of government. Sheriffs are elected by the local population, and many personally know them. Counties have different living situations, some, inner city, some very, very rural. The sheriff is most likely to ignore federal/state laws that the "locals" don't see as being a productive deterrent, or a politically "hot potato". The magazine/gun ban laws, for example, are being "ignored" by mostly rural sheriffs, whose county populations shoot, hunt, etc. with firearms, alongside the deputies of the local police force.