1. United States
2. N.C.
3. Letter

I see you are scheduled to vote on June 22 on overturning the Governor’s veto of the North Carolina Border Protection Act (S153). As your constituent, I urge you to vote to sustain the veto. This bill would accelerate ICE’s extra-legal pattern of mass detention and removals, criminalize immigrant vulnerability, and weaken constitutional safeguards that protect everyone in North Carolina. When the law was passed in 2025, we could not have anticipated how deadly and abusive ICE would become. Since the mass deportation campaign began, federal agents have committed multiple shootings that killed American citizens. Most notably, ICE agents shot and killed two Minneapolis residents—Renée Good on January 7, 2026, and Alex Pretti on January 24, 2026—within weeks of each other. An ICE officer also killed Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, in March 2025 in South Padre Island, Texas, a killing that was only later publicly confirmed through government records. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner concluded that Renée Good’s death was a homicide, yet federal authorities blocked Minnesota state officials from obtaining evidence and investigating. These are not isolated incidents: from September 2025 through February 2026 alone, immigration agents opened fire at least 14 times, killing multiple people and injuring others. More than 30 people died in ICE custody during 2025, the deadliest year on record, and within days of Good’s death, the agency experienced at least four more deaths in its detention facilities. Federal authorities have repeatedly contradicted video and eyewitness accounts to justify these killings, raising serious questions about leadership truthfulness and public accountability. Supporting the Border Protection Act is not “tough policy.” It is choosing to back a regime that prioritizes speed over due process, convenience over accountability, and coercion over constitutional limits. The Governor was right to veto it. It is especially morally and legally unacceptable to expand or facilitate detention of children through cooperation with ICE. Detention does not become safe because it is relabeled policy. Children in immigration contexts face predictable, long-lasting harm—psychological trauma, fear, instability, and damage caused by being held away from family and support. You should not vote to normalize caging children as an enforcement tool. I am also concerned that federal enforcement has violated judicial and constitutional norms, including habeas corpus and meaningful access to court review. Due process cannot be undermined through delay, obstruction, or rushed transfers designed to prevent scrutiny. If lawful review is blocked in practice, you should not provide further cover or capacity. Credible accounts from detention settings describe serious abuses tied to facilities such as Delaney Hall and the “Alligator Alcatraz.” Even if you believe some allegations are false, your duty remains the same: do not expand policies that operate in the shadow of alleged mistreatment and punishment-like conditions without conviction. On June 22, protect the Constitution and protect children. Vote to uphold the Governor’s veto of the Border Protection Act.