Why House Speaker Destin Hall wants the Border Patrol to come back to NC

One of the most powerful Republicans in the state is talking about why the Border Patrol is in North Carolina, what he thinks of their tactics and why he hopes they come back.

Republican House Speaker Destin Hall, who was behind the state law requiring sheriffs to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, spoke with The News & Observer in an exclusive interview about ICE and other issues he’s faced in his first year as speaker.

Following up on President Donald Trump’s campaign promise of mass deportation of people in the country without legal authorization, the U.S. Border Patrol sent agents to North Carolina starting Saturday and rounded up people at work, church and in neighborhoods. The sweeps prompted some residents to stay home, businesses to close and families to keep children out of school. The agency said Thursday it has arrested more than 370 people in the Charlotte area, The Charlotte Observer reported.

Hall sees the Border Patrol actions in Mecklenburg County and the Triangle as the “direct result of some sheriffs who have been elected, who decided they were not going to cooperate with ICE anymore.”

And he took issue with what he said was criticism of the federal agents for enforcing the law, along with calls to record their actions, saying such comments by leaders create a “dangerous environment.”

In 2018, voters elected new sheriffs in Wake, Mecklenburg and Durham counties who campaigned on limiting cooperation with ICE.

That received backlash from conservatives in the legislature. Hall spoke to The N&O on the subject in 2024 ahead of the passage of House Bill 10, which required all 100 sheriffs in North Carolina to notify ICE if they are unable to determine the legal status of a person charged with certain high-level offenses. Republicans overrode former Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto in November 2024.

The law requires sheriffs to comply with ICE requests to keep detaining inmates in their jails for up to 48 hours until they can be taken into federal custody. Some Democratic sheriffs, like Mecklenburg County’s Garry McFadden, argued that holding people after they’ve posted bond or complied with court-ordered conditions of release is unconstitutional.

“We’ve seen example after example of folks who should not have been let out of a jail, period — those sheriffs letting them out if they met their bond, and not honoring the ICE detainer,” Hall said Wednesday. “I’ve read, from what the federal government’s put out since they’ve been doing the enforcement operations in Charlotte in particular, a list of some of the folks who they’ve picked up — many of these people who were arrested before in this state, and ICE detainers were not honored.”

The Department of Homeland Security released a list of some of those arrested as part of what it called Operation Charlotte’s Web, including previous charges but no information about previous detainers.

Democratic Gov. Josh Stein told reporters on Tuesday that his office had not received any information from the Trump administration about Border Patrol activities in the state.

Asked if he had heard from the White House about the Border Patrol, Hall told The N&O on Wednesday, “not really with any specifics at all. We haven’t asked.”

“We have a number of contacts in the Trump administration and through federal law enforcement. And as things arise, sometimes we have a question. You know, we can usually get those things answered, but I think from our end ... we welcome federal law enforcement officials willing to come here and help us in this state enforce the law,” Hall said.

He said that they “didn’t have some sort of prior knowledge about where (the Border Patrol) were going or how. And part of that is, they have to have some operational security, I guess. And so I know they’re very quiet about where they’re going. And part of that is if they tell Democrats, then they’re going to go tell everybody in the world, so that these folks who want to come out and protest them and follow them around and scream at them will do so.”

Several videos by bystanders and in news coverage show people blowing whistles and shouting at Border Patrol agents while they arrested or detained people.

Hall said Republican legislative leaders would just let (the federal government) do their job. It looks like they’re doing a pretty good job at it right now. And so, we don’t have much to ask, other than to come back.”

The House speaker pointed out that voters elected Trump, who campaigned on border enforcement.

“We have a federal law that says we have a border. You can’t come here illegally. There are many people who do it the right way, and I think whatever else that folks may have voted for one way or the other in the last presidential election, one thing the president was very clear about is that we’re going to enforce federal immigration law, and that’s exactly what they’re doing,” he said.

The N&O also asked about Border Patrol tactics that have induced fear, as well as arrests of people without violent criminal records and agents breaking a car window.

“I think folks who break the law generally do fear being around law enforcement. And the fact remains that it is a crime across this country’s border illegally,” he said.

Hall added that “if we’re not going to enforce the border of this country, we really don’t have a country.”

He said that ICE and Border Patrol have a “difficult task, because nobody really knows how many folks are in this country illegally. Nobody knows where they’re all from,” referencing those that crossed under former President Joe Biden’s administration.

“So it’s really a huge task. If you look at this, is a big country, a lot of people in it, and if they’re going to enforce the laws and make that folks who are here illegally are deported, then they have to go out into the community and find those folks,” Hall said.

He said one of the reasons he pushed for the ICE cooperation bill is because “the safest place for the federal government, ICE, Border Patrol — whoever it may be — the safest place for them to do that job would be in the confines of a jail. But unfortunately, we have many law enforcement officials across the country, some state and local governments, who won’t cooperate with the federal government, all those things, and they let those folks out, and it just creates a dangerous environment for everyone.”

Stein, the governor, has a different take than Hall, saying on Sunday when Border Patrol agents were in the Charlotte area that “the vast majority of people (ICE and Border Patrol) have detained (in other cities) have no criminal convictions, and some are American citizens.”

Stein also suggested people record “inappropriate behavior.”

“I want to encourage North Carolinians to remember our values. We follow the law. We remain peaceful. We do not allow ourselves to be provoked. We stand with our neighbors. And when we see injustice, we bear witness. If you see any inappropriate behavior, use your phones to record and notify local law enforcement, who will continue to keep our communities safe long after these federal agents leave. That’s the North Carolina way,” Stein said.

Hall, however, thinks it’s “improper for these folks to follow (Border Patrol) around and block traffic in front of them, and I think that more times than not, you find out that the folks who they are picking up a lot of times have at least some criminal history, if not a serious criminal history, in addition to already breaking the law for coming here illegally.”

“So it’s a large task, but the people of this country very clearly voted for the idea that we’re going to have a border. We’re going to enforce it. If you want to come here, you need to do it the right way,” Hall said.

He thinks that Stein’s comments about documenting with video “was sort of a call for people to go and follow them around. I think that is a dangerous thing to say, to me. Think about any other law enforcement entity. If you said, you know, ‘I don’t like a given sheriff, I want you to go out and record and document what they’re doing.’ ... When people hear that from the governor or some person in authority, this idea that the federal government’s doing something wrong in enforcing the laws that are passed by Congress, it creates a dangerous environment.”

“And I thought that was inappropriate,” Hall said.