Left: The skyline of the City of Charlotte, North Carolina, which sits in Mecklenburg County. Right: Sheriff Garry McFadden. (Andrea Evangelo-Giamou / EyeEm via Getty Images; The Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office/Facebook)
After a long pause, Chesser continued, "For the sake of debate, let’s say there are three branches of government: legislative, executive, judicial. Of those three, which do you fall under?"
The sheriff answered, "I believe I fall under the last one … judicial."
"You are incorrect, sir. You fall under the executive," said Chesser.
After this, Chesser continued to press McFadden about how he reconciles his responsibility as an officer under the executive branch to enforce the law with his opposition to cooperation with ICE. Chesser asked McFadden how he reconciled his responsibility with a previous statement in which the sheriff said, "We do not have a role in enforcement whatsoever, we do not have to follow the rules and the laws that are governed by our lawmakers in Raleigh."
The sheriff said that Chesser was taking his quote out of context, saying it was strictly in reference to immigration enforcement.
Though declining to offer more context on the statement, McFadden affirmed his office is now abiding by state law requiring cooperation with ICE, saying, "We follow the law, when the law is produced, we follow the law."
Ukrainian Iryna Zarutska came to the U.S. to escape war but was stabbed to death in Charlotte. (Evgeniya Rush/GoFundMe)
"Last summer, we had the unfortunate death of a young Ukrainian national that had sought refuge in our country and in our state," Chesser went on. "I think that all North Carolinians, and all people who find themselves in North Carolina, should be able to count on one thing when it comes to public safety, and that is whether or not you are safe and whether or not the law will be enforced is not dependent on what county you find yourself in."
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"North Carolina is a safe state for all the people who choose to come here, and that is the point of the Oversight Committee [hearing] that we were having was, making sure that the law is equally applied and fairly applied across all imaginary lines in our state," he said.
The Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-lawmaker-shocked-after-anti-ice-sheriff-stumped-fifth-grade-civics-question