Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers, after consulting with his legal team, has withdrawn his support from legislation being backed by the NC Sheriff’s Association.

The Department sent out a press release on Tuesday, June 11, which stated that – due to recent changes in the proposal – Rogers and the department were no longer behind it.

Though there have been several versions of the NC Sheriff’s Association proposal, it would essentially compel county sheriffs to honor and fulfill US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requests to detain inmates, and would also make it illegal for any county to prohibit ICE officials from conducting immigration enforcement activities in a county jail or in other types of detention facilities.

“The legal team at the GCSO [Guilford County Sheriff’s Office], under the guidance of Sheriff Rogers, has had the opportunity to study the Association’s proposal (as revised on May 16, 2019) in more detail,” the June 11 press release states.  “Based on that review, Sheriff Rogers has some significant concerns about the measure proposed by the NCSA.  As a result, he is respectfully withdrawing his support for the NCSA’s proposal effective today.”

According to the press release, one concern of Rogers and his legal team was that the NC Sheriff’s Association’s proposal, while “well-intentioned,” doesn’t remedy “constitutional and legal flaws” – in particular, the press release states, that goes for violations of the constitutional right to due process.

The press release from the department continues: “In addition, though the NCSA proposal contains a provision which states that a Sheriff’s Office cannot be held criminally or civilly liable for detaining an inmate pursuant to this statute, we don’t believe a State statute can immunize State officials from potentially violating the due process provisions in the US Constitution.”