After the killing of a second Minnesota protester last weekend by federal immigration officers, two Charleston-area Democratic lawmakers and the party’s leading candidate for governor are raising alarms about a bill in the S.C. House that they say could put local law enforcement officers and residents at risk.
Under the bill (H. 4764), which has almost 50 Republican cosponsors including House Speaker Murrell Smith of Sumter, sheriff’s departments across the state would be forced to participate in the Trump administration’s controversial crackdown on illegal immigration by entering into so-called 287(g) agreements with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. The bill would require local departments that operate jails to choose among three levels of partnerships, from simply detaining suspected offenders to actively enforcing federal immigration law.
Heading into this year’s session, Smith called for “immigration enforcement with zero tolerance for sanctuary policies,” and lauded “stronger partnerships with federal authorities to keep communities safe.”
But with national outrage over ICE tactics building after the deaths this month of Minnesota mother-of-three Renee Good and ICU nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of masked federal immigration officers, Lowcountry Democratic legislators say the GOP supermajority needs to slow down.
“Every time we see footage of an angry masked officer claiming the power of the government to justify shootings, warrantless searches, shoving human beings to the ground and separating children, it unfortunately erodes overall trust in law enforcement,” Charleston Rep. Spenser Wetmore told the Charleston City Paper this week.
She added, “As hard as we’ve worked on training and accountability for our law enforcement officers to be seen as true public servants, it is embarrassing that we turn around and let masked cowboys who don’t seem to understand the constitution be a part of that system.”
Charleston Democratic Sen. Ed Sutton echoed those concerns in a Jan. 27 interview, noting that standards for ICE officers have reportedly fallen dramatically in the rush to hire new officers.
“They’re just not screening people and training them well at all,” Sutton said. “They’re basically just giving them guns and putting them out on the street.”
That’s why Sutton says he favored leaving decisions to partner with ICE in the hands of local sheriffs and police departments. Currently, sheriffs in 20 of the state’s 46 counties have voluntarily entered into federal enforcement agreements.
“Let’s respect local sheriffs and the principle of home rule,” Sutton said. “They know what’s best for their own community, and we don’t need to be tying their hands from Columbia.”
In a separate Jan. 27 interview, Richland Democratic Rep. Jermaine Johnson, a gubernatorial candidate, described the timing of the GOP bill as “tone deaf.”
“Looking at the overall picture,” he said, referring to the situation in Minneapolis. “This could put our citizens in danger. It could also put our state and local law enforcement officers in danger. This is just a scary time for everybody.”
What’s more, he argued, the drive to force sheriffs into partnerships with federal immigration officers is part of what he sees as a larger Statehouse pattern — last seen in 2024 when GOP lawmakers ignored the concerns of local police chiefs and law enforcement officials by passing a bill legalizing permitless carry of open and concealed firearms.
“We haven’t been listening to the people on the ground doing the work,” he said. “We need to be talking to our law enforcement officers about these issues.”
That opportunity should arise in the weeks ahead, when the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by bill co-sponsor Rep. Weston Newton, R-Beaufort, takes up the legislation.
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