NC House overrides Cooper's veto of immigration bill HB10
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of House Bill 10 was overridden by the state House on Tuesday afternoon.
The HB 10 veto override passed 72-44 in the House. The measure now goes to the Senate for consideration. It's not yet known when the Senate will take up the override effort but it is expected to be sometime Wednesday.
The bill covers two significant topics -- school vouchers and undocumented immigration:
If overridden, it will clear the backlog of 55,000 families on the waitlist for opportunity scholarships. These are private-school scholarships that use taxpayer money to send children of different income levels to private schools.
It would also require sheriffs in North Carolina to follow new protocols should they learn someone they've arrested is in the country illegally. Sheriffs -- once a court order has been issued - would be mandated to keep those undocumented people in custody until federal agents from ICE can step in.
It's a law that advocates say will devastate North Carolina's immigrant communities. A vigil was held outside the state legislature to protest HB10.
WATCH | Vigil held to protest expected veto override of HB 10
"We saw it in the past. We saw it here, ICE coming to take people from our community with really not the right way to do it. So, yeah, we are very concerned about that," Pilar Rocha-Goldberg, CEO of El Centro Hispano, said.
The North Carolina Sheriffs' Association however supports the latest version of HB10, saying: "The Association appreciates the legislature for its willingness not to impose onerous recordkeeping requirements on our state's 100 sheriffs; and not to interject the Attorney General into these judicial matters."
Wake County and Durham County sheriffs, both Democrats, have spoken out against the bill, arguing that it takes away their ability to determine how to best serve their communities.
