North Carolina voters reject pro-Trump anti-immigrant incumbent sheriff in shock election

This Tuesday, voters in North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County rejected a controversial Trump-backed program which allowed local law enforcement to also act as federal immigration officers. The program led to the deportation of over 15,000 of the county’s residents in just over a decade, according to the ACLU.

Four out of five voters gave former CMPD homicide detective Garry McFadden the new role as sheriff, demanding “justice, accountability,” and an end to the “discriminatory policy that has led to widespread racial profiling, civil rights abuses, and families being torn apart,” the ACLU said in their statement.

“I want to change the city to bring unity,” McFadden said to a crowd of racially diverse supporters. “I want to change the city to bring inclusiveness. And we’re going to have to talk about race.  And someone said, ‘Is that the job of the sheriff?’ Well, that’s the job of this sheriff!”

The loss was a big one for outgoing sheriff Irwin Carmichael, who had been a vocal proponent of President Trump’s immigration policies. The issue was so divisive, that even Carmichael acknowledged that the policy, known as the 287(g) program, was the deciding factor in his loss.

McFadden had a huge groundswell of Latino support.

The ACLU played a part in the defeat of Trumpism as well.

With so much on the line for civil liberties, the ACLU and our community partners engaged in a first-of-its-kind campaign in this Democratic primary to educate voters about the candidates’ positions on immigrants’ rights and other vital issues, including solitary confinement of juveniles and independent investigations of misconduct in the sheriff’s office. We invested $175,000 in radio ads, phone calls, canvassing, and other efforts to directly reach tens of thousands of voters about the civil liberties issues at stake in this race.

McFadden will likely serve a full four-year term since no Republicans are running.

Featured image via YouTube

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.