As North Carolina braces for a second straight weekend with a major winter storm, Gov. Josh Stein’s attention is focused, in part, on a standoff in Congress over immigration reform.
The two topics are more related than one might think: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security oversees the separate federal agencies in charge of immigration enforcement and emergency management.
Other WRAL Top Stories
And if congressional lawmakers can’t reach an agreement on their fight over the conduct of — and funding for — immigration agents, North Carolina’s efforts to respond to the snow and ice expected this weekend could be hampered.
The federal government will enter a partial shutdown Friday unless Congress passes a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. But after two high-profile killings of American citizens by immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis recently, Democrats in the U.S. Senate say they’ll refuse to authorize the funding unless Republicans agree to reforms in the way that ICE, Border Patrol and other agents interact with the public.
Homeland Security is also in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Stein told reporters Thursday he’s concerned what it could mean for North Carolina if FEMA is shut down when bad weather hits the state. Another winter storm, bringing snow and lower-than-normal temperatures to much of North Carolina, is forecast for this weekend.
The Trump administration has also expressed concern that a shutdown could affect FEMA's ability to respond to the storm. But also on Thursday, the Associated Press quoted anonymous sources familiar with FEMA funding who said the agency had about $7 billion held in reserve. It also quoted an outside emergency response expert who said that should cover several weeks' worth of disaster response for the agency, including anything that might happen this weekend.
Stein also said Thursday the repercussions of a shutdown affecting DHS wouldn’t just hit immediate storm relief efforts but could also throw an additional wrench into the federal government’s work on Hurricane Helene relief, which is already behind schedule and significantly underfunded.
“The federal government needs to operate,” Stein said. “They need to have a budget. We need the support of FEMA to help recover in western North Carolina. The public assistance reimbursements need to come through. The hazard mitigation programs that help us build resilience into our infrastructure for the next storm — that needs to come through.”
State, federal response
Stein declared a state of emergency for North Carolina last week, ahead of an ice storm that hit the state. President Donald Trump quickly followed suit, having FEMA declare a federal state of emergency for North Carolina as well. That allowed the state to ask for extra manpower and equipment from the federal government if needed.
Stein praised Trump for the quick action on that federal declaration, and he repeated that praise Thursday. But he expressed concern that this weekend might be different.
“I asked the president for a storm declaration, and they granted it within a day — very responsive,” Stein said during a news conference Thursday. “So I was pleased with that. And we hope that whatever needs we have of the federal government with this storm, they're equally as responsive.”
Stein said if he had his way, the federal government shutdown would be avoided by Republicans agreeing to reform the ways ICE agents work — take off the masks and put on body cameras, he suggested — in exchange for the Democrats agreeing to keep DHS funded.
“There's absolutely no reason why you cannot have basic accountability for ICE,” Stein said, adding: “They can wear body cams. They can have their name on their uniform. They do not have to wear masks. They can have relationships with state and local where they're informing them of what their actions are. These things are basic measures of accountability and good law enforcement. They can do those things, and keep the government open.”
Trump said Thursday at a Cabinet meeting that members of his administration are speaking with congressional Democrats about reaching a deal.
“We’re working on that right now,” Trump said, the Associated Press reported. He added: “We don’t want a shutdown.”
One version of a DHS funding bill, with no attempts at requiring the ICE reforms that Senate Democrats are now seeking following the Minneapolis killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, already passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The vote was almost entirely along party lines with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed. Seven Democrats — including North Carolina U.S. Rep. Don Davis — crossed party lines to vote with Republicans.
But while Republicans also hold a majority in the U.S. Senate, they’ve been unable to win over enough Democrats to break that chamber’s filibuster rules and pass the funding plan.
The Minneapolis killings have also started to turn public opinion against Trump’s immigration policies — which some fellow Republicans see as a self-inflicted political injury that’s losing their party voters on what used to be one of the GOP’s strongest issues with the general public.
One of those critics is U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, who said if he were president he’d fire DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and one of Trump’s top advisors, Steven Miller.
“She has taken this administration into the ground on an issue that we should own,” Tillis said of Noem. “We should own the issue of border security and immigration. But they have destroyed that for Republicans. Something that got the president elected. They have destroyed it through their incompetence.”
A 2024 WRAL News Poll found that 78% of North Carolina voters favored stronger immigration policies than had been in place under then-President Joe Biden. But earlier this week, a new national poll by Reuters found that 58% of Americans believe Trump’s ICE crackdown has gone too far.
Trump called Tillis “a loser” over his criticism, to which Tillis responded, “I am thrilled about that. That makes me qualified to be Homeland Security secretary and senior adviser to the president.”
The state’s other U.S. Senator, Republican Ted Budd, hasn’t been as aggressive as Tillis. He said he supports Trump’s immigration crackdown but questioned strategies Noem and other DHS officials have employed, such as referring to Good as a domestic terrorist or blaming Pretti’s death on the fact that he had a gun.
“I’d also like to remind federal leaders that words matter,” Budd wrote on social media this week. “Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms, and the mere possession of a firearm does not represent a threat justifying lethal force. Given heavy-handed rhetoric and recent events, we have seen an erosion of trust in federal immigration officials growing among too many Americans.”