By Hon. Thom Goolsby, Esq.

The debate surrounding immigration and border security dominates in Washington, yet Congress has little to show for it. Protecting our border and reintroducing law and order to our broken immigration system should be goals shared by every one of our elected officials. Yet too many communities throughout the country are feeling the effects of inaction. While some key leaders in Congress are working aggressively to make a change, many of their colleagues are in dire need of a reality check.    

The recent murder of Laken Riley, a 22 year-old nursing student in Georgia, sent shockwaves throughout the state and the nation. While this tragedy was senseless and brutal, it was also very much preventable. The perpetrator was in the country illegally, traveling from Venezuela to take advantage of our open borders. The government was not unaware of his presence – in fact, he had been arrested twice already, once for shoplifting. Unfortunately, he was released both times.

Even from the start, the criminal was caught at the border but released into the country with “temporary permission” to stay. This story is not uncommon. Flawed policies have allowed countless illegal immigrants to overwhelm the system and flood the streets with little oversight, leaving many free to repeatedly commit crimes. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), almost 50 percent of the 170,590 illegal immigrants arrested in the U.S. in 2023 had multiple criminal charges and convictions. 

The impact isn’t only being felt in border states. Nearly half a million illegal immigrants reside in North Carolina, based on 2023 estimates. And recently, our state has seen a surge in crime, including sex trafficking and the transport of illegal drugs like fentanyl. Adding insult to injury, our citizens are quite literally paying the price for this. Recent analysis shows that the influx of illegal immigrants cost North Carolina taxpayers $3.14 billion annually due to the strain on public services.

Some leaders in Washington are not hesitating to act. North Carolina is well represented by Senator Thom Tillis, who is pushing several bills that would help restore sanity to our country. For example, Senator Tillis recently introduced the Laken Riley Act to prevent future tragedies from tearing apart our communities. The bill would require that ICE keep in their custody illegal immigrants arrested for crimes like shoplifting until they are removed from the U.S. The bill also allows states to sue the Secretary of Homeland Security for harming state citizens through flawed immigration policies.

Senator Tillis is also working to pass the Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities Act and the Immigration Detainer Enforcement Act. These two bills crack down on sanctuary cities and hold them responsible for the harm they bring to the rest of the country. Specifically, they open up sanctuary cities to legal action from families or individuals victimized by any criminal that these cities shielded from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) detainer requests. They also clarify DHS detainer authority to empower ICE to gain and maintain custody of criminal illegal immigrants. Legislation like this would help fight back against soft-on-crime liberal policies.    

Other lawmakers should put aside politics and rally to support these needed fixes. Senator Tillis is acting in the interest of all Americans by working to move these bills forward. It’s time his colleagues, especially those on the other side of the aisle, respond to the chaos with an embrace of law and order. We cannot let heinous crimes go unanswered.

Thom Goolsby is a former U.S. Marine Corps Officer and former Counsel to the North Carolina Governor’s Crime Commission.  Goolsby served as a Republican member of the North Carolina Senate, representing New Hanover County from 2011 through 2014.  He co-chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee.