Buncombe County — August 6, 2025: Buncombe County no longer appears on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) latest list of “sanctuary jurisdictions,” which was released by the Department of Justice on August 5, 2025.
This development comes after the county was included on an initial, widely contested, version of the list published on May 29, 2025, which was later removed from the DHS website.
The initial designation sparked an immediate and strong reaction from local officials. Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller publicly disputed the label, calling it “blatantly incorrect.” He wrote a letter to U.S. Senator Thom Tillis requesting clarification and the county’s removal from the list…