Durham

Hundreds of local jurisdictions restrict cooperation with immigration enforcement to some extent. The vast majority of these restrictions aim to stop the co-optation of local law enforcement, because over the last decade, the federal government has increasingly relied on local criminal justice systems as force multipliers to carry out immigration enforcement. 

Cities and counties can resist these tactics through a variety of laws and policies limiting the extent to which local resources, ostensibly devoted to public safety and crime prevention, can be diverted to support enforcement of civil immigration laws. In doing so, they can make clear that local resources and local government prioritizes the safety and inclusion of all residents, regardless of immigration status.

For policy background and further resources, see our toolkit page on ending co-optation of local law enforcement for federal immigration enforcement here.

Durham does not administer the jail, which is under the jurisdiction of Durham county. In addition, North Carolina has an anti-sanctuary city law.

City Data

  • 257,232
    Total Population
  • 17.4%
    Poverty status in the past 12 months
  • 547
    No. of Police

Sources »

Racial and Ethnic Demographics

  • 14%
    Latinx
  • 39.7%
    Black/African American
  • 38.8%
    White, non-Hispanic
  • 5.2%
    Asian
  • 0.3%
    American Indian and Alaska Native
  • 0%
    Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
  • 3.9%
    Some other race
  • 3%
    2 or more races

Methodology

Center for Popular Democracy researchers evaluated each jurisdiction based on a full set of policy criteria as developed in the Reform/Transform toolkit in collaboration with policy experts and advocates. Because the original tool is lengthy and the questions are numerous, we organized the full list of questions into a smaller number of thematic groupings. This process yielded eight broad groupings of questions (which encompassed all of the sub-questions from the original, full-length tool). Read more »