North Carolina Youth and Students Say NO to HB318

What’s HB318?
On September 30, HB318 was set to the Governor’s desk for approval. The bill passed by the General Assembly is one of the worst anti-immigrant bills NC has seen in awhile.

HB318 will leave people without the ability to identify oneself to government officials by prohibiting the use of consular documents (like matriculas), and municipal and or organizational ID’s; jeopardizing an individual’s rights. It will invalidate local policies designed to encourage witnesses and victims of crime to contact and cooperate with law enforcement, effectively discouraging the undocumented community from reporting crime. By prohibiting local governments from adopting policies aimed at improving safety for everyone in the community, this bill will deepen the wedge between immigrant communities and law enforcement.

Stop the attacks on undocumented immigrants!
HB318 is titled “Protect North Carolina Workers Act” but is targeting one of the most significant work forces in the state. The bill is anti-worker and anti-immigrant and relies on the stereotype that immigrants are stealing jobs instead of what’s true: that undocumented workers contribute more than $80 million to the state’s economy annually.

HB318 is a piece of legislation that poorly hides our General Assembly’s negative views of undocumented immigrants in this state. In a state where E-Verify is already in place, why do we need to do more to disempower undocumented workers? Why is it OK to give business the right to threaten deportations against a community of people who work, whose children are enrolled in school, who have given to this state?

Stop the attacks on undocumented immigrants! If we want to strengthen our economy, our workplaces, and our communities, HB318 is not the way to go. Youth and students are standing together to say NO to this bill. We refuse to remain quiet as the General Assembly makes our state more hostile to immigrants and our families.

Veto the bill!
Governor McCrory has the power to stop this bill. Youth and students from across North Carolina demand that he veto HB 318 and listen to the stories of workers, families, youth, and students who will be negatively impacted by this legislation. We will not tolerate racist, anti-immigrant attacks on our communities.

A statement from youth and students from across the state working on immigrants’ rights, voter rights, an end to the school-to-prison-pipeline, and against many other injustices in our communities and schools.