NC Immigration Bill: Enforcement, Benefits, and Sanctuary Cities

The North Carolina immigration bill known as Senate Bill 153, the North Carolina Border Protection Act, became law on June 24, 2026, when the state House completed a veto override that the Senate had started nearly a year earlier. The law directs four state law enforcement agencies to enter formal cooperation agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, blocks undocumented immigrants from a long list of state-funded benefits, strips governmental immunity from local governments with sanctuary policies, and bars University of North Carolina campuses from adopting rules that restrict federal immigration enforcement.¹²

What State Law Enforcement Must Now Do

Four agencies are required to sign 287(g) agreements with ICE: the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Adult Correction, the State Highway Patrol, and the State Bureau of Investigation.¹ A 287(g) agreement, authorized under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, lets designated state officers carry out federal immigration enforcement functions under ICE supervision after completing ICE-mandated training.³

Each of the four agencies must also adopt internal policies telling employees to determine, through direct inquiry or examination of documents, whether anyone in their custody is a U.S. citizen or legal resident. If status cannot be confirmed, the agency must query ICE. If the person is found not to be a citizen or legal resident, the agency must share all requested information with ICE and cooperate “to the fullest extent allowed by law.”¹

The law assigned oversight to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety and ordered a compliance audit by the State Auditor. Those internal reporting deadlines were written for 2025 and had already passed when the override finally took effect in mid-2026, and there is no publicly available reporting confirming whether the four agencies have completed their 287(g) agreements.

Who Loses Access to State Benefits

The Department of Health and Human Services must make sure that noncitizens without legal status cannot receive state-funded benefits across 15 programs it administers, including Medicaid, child care subsidies, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.¹ Two carve-outs survive: services that help eligible beneficiaries access food or meals, and WIC services for infants and children.⁴

Housing assistance is treated the same way. The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency and local housing authorities must stop providing publicly funded housing benefits to undocumented immigrants under 13 listed programs, including Section 8, Housing Trust Fund assistance, and low-income housing tax credits.⁴ The Division of Employment Security must verify that unemployment benefit applicants are legally authorized to reside in the United States before issuing payments.¹

In his veto message, Governor Josh Stein said people without lawful immigration status were already barred under existing law from receiving Medicaid, SNAP, Section 8 housing, and other benefits.⁵

What Happens to Sanctuary Cities and Counties

Counties and cities that keep sanctuary ordinances are deemed to have waived their governmental immunity from civil lawsuits if an undocumented immigrant commits a crime against persons or property within their boundaries. The waiver applies even when the local government has not purchased liability insurance, which means municipalities face direct financial exposure.⁶

What Changes at UNC Campuses

No UNC constituent institution may maintain policies that restrict the enforcement of federal immigration laws. Schools cannot prevent law enforcement from gathering information about an individual’s immigration or citizenship status, direct agencies not to collect it, or block the communication of that information to federal authorities.⁶ Information protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act remains shielded. The State Auditor is responsible for ensuring compliance and reporting results to the General Assembly annually.⁷

How It Became Law

SB 153 was filed on February 24, 2025, with Senator Phil Berger among its primary sponsors. The Senate passed it in early March 2025, the House passed its version on June 4, 2025 by a vote of 60 to 46, and the Senate concurred and ratified the bill on June 10, 2025.⁸

Governor Stein vetoed SB 153 on June 20, 2025. He argued the law would weaken public safety rather than strengthen it, writing that “at a time when our law enforcement is already stretched thin, this bill takes state law enforcement officers away from their existing state duties and forces them to act as federal immigration agents.”⁵

The override moved on an unusual timeline. The Senate overrode on July 29, 2025 by a vote of 30 to 19. The House did not act until June 24, 2026, when it voted 71 to 47 to complete the override.⁸⁹ The House vote fell along strict party lines. Every Republican present voted to override; all Democrats and unaffiliated Representative Nasif Majeed voted against. Two legislators were absent: Democratic Representative Shelly Willingham and unaffiliated Representative Carla Cunningham. Their absence shifted the math enough for Republicans to clear the three-fifths threshold.¹⁰ The law is now in effect as Session Law 2026-19.²

The Separate Law on Pretrial ICE Checks

SB 153 is sometimes confused with House Bill 318, the Criminal Illegal Alien Enforcement Act, which is a separate law. HB 318 requires judges and magistrates to inquire into a defendant’s citizenship or residency status at pretrial release hearings when the person is charged with any felony, certain Class A1 misdemeanors, or impaired driving offenses. When status cannot be determined, the defendant must be fingerprinted and held for up to two hours while officials contact ICE.¹¹⁵¹²

Arguments For and Against

Republican leaders framed SB 153 as a necessary response to illegal immigration. Senate Leader Phil Berger said that “the Republican-led General Assembly made it clear that harboring criminal illegal aliens will not be tolerated in our state.”¹³

Democratic legislators argued the law would lead to racial profiling and was unnecessary. Senator Sophia Chitlik of Durham said, “They didn’t send us here to round up their neighbors.” Senator Natalie Murdock called the legislation “intimidation” and “fear-mongering.”¹⁴ State Representative Jordan Lopez raised concerns that the law would damage public trust in law enforcement among the Hispanic community.¹⁵

Some sheriffs opposed the legislation on Fourth Amendment grounds, citing strained resources and the risk of damaging relationships with Latino communities.¹⁶ The North Carolina Justice Center called SB 153 a “dangerous and unnecessary expansion of immigration enforcement” and warned the bill would impose a “significant financial burden on North Carolina taxpayers,” noting that 287(g) programs can cost individual counties millions of dollars.¹⁷ The ACLU of North Carolina described the law as “doubling down on preventing local governments and universities from working to protect our immigrant communities.”¹⁸

After the override, Governor Stein again criticized the legislature for “forcing state law enforcement officers to act as federal immigration agents” and diverting them from their state responsibilities.¹⁹

1
NC Legislative Research Staff – UNC School of Government. North Carolina Border Protection Act
2
North Carolina General Assembly. Session Law 2026-19
3
North Carolina General Assembly. Senate Bill 153 Ratified Text
4
North Carolina General Assembly. Senate Bill 153 Filed Text
5
Office of the Governor of North Carolina. Governor Stein Takes Action on Four Bills
6
NC Legislative Research Staff – UNC School of Government. S 153 Bill Summary
7
Daily Tar Heel. SB 153 Immigration Bill
8
North Carolina General Assembly. Bill Lookup: S153
9
WUNC. House Republicans Override Four of Gov. Stein’s Vetoes
10
Carolina Public Press. DEI, Immigration Bills Veto Overrides in NC House
11
NC Legislative Research Staff – UNC School of Government. Criminal Illegal Alien Enforcement Act
12
North Carolina General Assembly. Bill Lookup: H318
13
Carolina Journal. NC Senate Passes Criminal Alien Enforcement Act
14
ABC11. NC Senate Will Vote on Bill Expanding Authorities’ Cooperation With ICE
15
QC News. New NC Law Means State Law Enforcement Must Aid Federal Immigration Operations
16
WUNC. Anti-Immigration Bills NC Laws
17
North Carolina Justice Center. North Carolina Justice Center Opposes Senate Bill 153
18
ACLU of North Carolina. NCGA Overrides Governor’s Veto on SB 153
19
Office of the Governor of North Carolina. Governor Stein Reacts to Override of Vetoes