From Staff Reports

ASHEVILLE — Just one day after U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., “labeled Buncombe County one of nine counties in the state he considers ‘sanctuary jurisdictions,’ the North Carolina House passed a GOP-backed bill April 30 that seeks to bolster state law forcing sheriffs to work more closely with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” the Asheville Citizen Times reported on May 8.

“If passed into law, House Bill 318 would nearly double the number of charges that require local law enforcement to ask about a person’s immigration status,” the ACT noted, adding, “This is typically the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government, according to immigration attorney Jacob Oakes with Pisgah Legal in Buncombe County. 

“The bill comes soon after two others — one ratified into law in December — brought by Republican lawmakers in the state House and Senate to aid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

“The expansion would include all felony charges, protective order violations, any impaired driving offense and additional misdemeanor charges, including battery of a pregnant woman and sex offenses, according to the bill.”

Further, the ACT  stated that “the bill builds on a law enacted last year by requiring local law enforcement notify ICE within two hours of the person’s scheduled release if they had been held under a temporary detainer request. It also triggers the 48-hour ICE hold policy to begin only after a detainee would otherwise be released from custody, rather than when the ICE detainer is received.

“The bill adds additional burden on judicial officials — a judge or magistrate — to attempt to determine the defendant’s legal status after their arrest. If they cannot confirm the defendant is a legal resident or citizen, the judicial official must order a query to ICE and set a two-hour hold on the defendant,” the newspaper reported.

From Staff Reports 

ASHEVILLE —  The N.C. Department of Transportation says “it is moving forward with construction plans for the northern section of the I-26 Connector project despite pushback from critics upset over its new design,” the Asheville Citizen Times reported on April 30.

“At an April 24 project update meeting in the ballroom of downtown’s Renaissance Hotel, revised plans were displayed for the 375 meeting-goers — the first new public-facing maps since those presented at a 2018 public hearing,” the ACT stated, adding the following:

“The connector’s northern section is its priciest. The $1.2 billion project includes a new portion of interstate from the Haywood Road interchange, crossing the river and connecting to U.S. 19/23/70 north of Broadway, as well as roadway improvements along Riverside Drive.

“A recently revealed revival of an unpopular element believed to have been quashed 15 years before has drawn new project critiques. Much of the frustration centers on a 150-foot-wide interstate bridge that will arch over Patton Avenue west of the French Broad River, rather than under.”

Meanwhile, Michael McDonough, a founding member of the Asheville Design Center, told the newspaper that, as an architect, he can see the potential of good design.

“You can meet the needs elegantly or brutally,” he told the ACT. “And this is brutally.”