Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office Statement on ICE

Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller reiterated this month that his department will not allow ICE (Immigration Control and Enforcement) officers onto public school campuses.

“Immigration enforcement is not allowed on our school campuses unless forced through a valid court order,” the sheriff said in a formal statement released Feb. 7, 2025. “As the Sheriff, I am not in charge of operating the churches or schools within this community, but I am elected to ensure the safety and security of ALL the residents in Buncombe county.”

For many years the Department of the Sheriff has had deputies in schools as School Resource Officers. Those officers, however, are there to ensure the safety of school personnel and students, not to enforce federal laws.

“I have repeatedly spoken out against cooperation with ICE,” Miller continued, “saying federal immigration law is not the responsibility of local officers and damages law enforcement’s trust within the immigrant community. I also indicated in the past that I would not comply with just an ICE ‘detainer’ to hold undocumented immigrants taken into custody.”

Miller noted that the NC Legislature’s recent passage of HB10 amended that compliance to involve the issuance of both a detainer and an administrative warrant in order to hold someone undocumented in custody for up to 48 hours. That law requires sheriffs to enforce ICE warrants, but “only after someone has committed a crime,” the sheriff noted.

“BCSO deputies will not be arresting and detaining persons to solely investigate immigration status in the absence of probable cause of an independent crime; that is racially profiling and unconstitutional.”

Miller reiterated that the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office “will not be partnering with ICE to help enforce federal immigration laws beyond following HB10.”