Alamance County Ends ICE Detainee Contract Nov. 16, Cites Iryna's Law

Sheriff Terry Johnson notified U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement by certified letter that, effective Nov. 16, 2025, the Alamance County Detention Center will no longer accept ICE detainees, the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office announced in a bilingual Facebook post published Nov. 19, 2025. The Facebook post says the change responds to “recent changes to North Carolina law brought about by the North Carolina House Bill 307 (Iryna’s Law) governing pretrial release, electronic monitoring, and detention of individuals charged with violent offenses taking effect on December 1, 2025.”

The sheriff’s office framed the decision as an operational necessity. “These changes materially affect our ability to manage classification, housing, and supervision of detainees in our facility and will require us to prioritize bed space and resources for local and state inmates and remain compliant with state law and court directives.’ Sheriff Johnson said” in the Facebook announcement, which also states the detention center “will be unable to continue housing and transporting ICE detainees on a ‘space available’ basis.”

The loss of the ICE contract will have a measurable fiscal impact. NC Local reported the end of the contract “could remove about $2 million in annual income from an already strained county budget,” while the Alamance News reported the county will “forfeit about $1.9 million in annual revenues from the current ICE contract.” Alamance News additionally quoted Johnson saying, “I simply cannot take on ICE prisoners without more space,” and noted the sheriff had negotiated earlier in the year with ICE over a potentially larger deal that might have included federal funding for roof replacement on the state’s former prison unit in Graham.

Operational pressure on bed space has fluctuated over the life of the agreement. Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse data cited by NC Local show the jail held an average of 35 immigrant detainees per day in the first year under the agreement, fell to fewer than 10 per day during the pandemic and the following year, and rose to about 20 per day by fall 2023 where it remained through most of 2025. Alamance News reported the county previously used a former “prison camp” as an auxiliary facility that housed about 80 prisoners, a capacity detail the sheriff appears to have weighed in contract talks.

The sheriff’s Facebook post emphasized continuity with federal partners even as the contract ends. “The Sheriff’s Office values the working relationship we continue to have with ICE and wants to ensure an orderly and cooperative transition,” the post says; the office published identical English and Spanish text in the announcement. NC Local also photographed and interviewed Sheriff Johnson at the John Hardie Stockard Law Enforcement Building in Graham on Jan. 14, 2026 as part of its reporting.

Media outlets noted the law cited by the sheriff is widely known as Iryna’s Law. ABC11 reported the bill was named in memory of Iryna Zarutska, describing her as “a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was stabbed to death on a Charlotte light-rail train last month in an attack that sparked outrage nationwide.” Assembly NC’s reporting framed Sheriff Terry Johnson as “pro-Trump” and said he terminated the detention agreement in November “just before increased federal enforcement,” a chronology and political description attributed to that outlet.

As Alamance County moves forward, officials will have to reconcile jail capacity, the roughly $1.9 million to $2 million annual revenue shortfall reported by local outlets, and the December 1, 2025 effective date of House Bill 307 that the sheriff cited as the operational trigger for ending the ICE detainee arrangement.