North Carolina has only one female sheriff.

First elected in 2000, Currituck County Susan Johnson is the only woman of the state's 100 sheriffs, though she used to have more company.

As recently as 2006, there were three women, including Sheriff Barbara Pickens of Lincoln County and an appointee in Washington County.

Pickens was the state's first female sheriff when she was elected in 1994. She was re-elected to two more terms, retiring in 2006 after losing a bid for another term.

Eddie Caldwell, executive vice president of the N.C. Sheriffs' Association, said he did not know why there were not more women in the role.

"The decision about who to elect rests with the qualified voters of the individual counties," he said.

Though women were elected to a number of offices for the first time this year, several top positions in law enforcement remain nearly all male.

According to the N.C. Sheriffs' Association, seven counties have flagged some 3,182 people who are now in deportation proceedings.

The counties are participating in the 287(g) program, which gives local authorities some ability to enforce federal immigration law.

Mecklenburg County found some 1,693 people in its jail who are now in deportation proceedings or have been deported. Wake County, which joined the program this year, found 485.

Cumberland and Henderson also joined the program this year.

Those interviewed were in the county jail. According to the sheriffs' association, those facing deportation were charged with 3,654 offenses. Here's how those break down:

— 1,600 (44 percent) criminal violations ranging from murder to tresspassing

— 849 (23 percent) impaired driving

— 1,215 (33 percent) traffic violations

Seven counties participating in a program designed to flag illegal immigrants in county jails have flagged for deportation proceedings more than 3,100 people since January.

That figure represents 70 percent of the 4,500 prisoners interviewed in the seven jails that are participating in a federal program designed to allow county and local officials to help enforce federal immigration laws, said Eddie Caldwell, executive vice president and general counsel of the N.C. Sheriffs' Association.

Caldwell's gave the figures for the seven counties as part of a presentation to a legislative oversight committee on crime and corrections.

Under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1996, local law enforcement agencies can be granted authority to handle immigration. The seven counties participating in the program are Alamance, Cabarrus, Cumberland, Gaston, Henderson, Mecklenburg and Wake.

On Jan. 1, a law went into effect requiring jail operators to try to determine the residency status of anyone arrested for impaired driving or a felony. But the counties participaing in the federal partnership have much greater access to federal immigration resources.

More after the jump.

Correction: Post and headline have been updated to reflect that it's the federal partnership, not the state law, that most directly led to the removal proceedings.

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State Sen. Kay Hagan, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, said she supports a program that helps sheriff's deputies work on immigration, but criticized the cost to the state at a debate today.

What she said: "The 287(g) program is an unfunded federal mandate. Immigration is a federal issue. It is not a state issue."

The background: Since 1996, the federal government has offered a pilot program for sheriff’s deputies to investigate illegal immigration.

Though immigration enforcement is typically handled by the federal government, the goal of the 287(g) program is to start deportation proceedings on illegal immigrants who are arrested for crimes like drunk driving and other non-immigration related offenses.

In North Carolina, a handful of local sheriff's offices, including Wake County, have signed up for the program, which has been promoted by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

The federal government pays for the cost of training deputies in immigration enforcement and grants sheriff's offices access to immigration records.

In 2007, the state legislature gave the N.C. Sheriffs' Association $750,000 to pay for additional support for the 287(g) program. Hagan, as a leader on the Senate budget committee, was instrumental in getting that funding in the state budget, according to her campaign.

This year's proposed state budget includes an increase to $1 million, although the association did not spend its entire allocation last year.

The Sheriffs' Association is a private professional organization that provides training and support services and lobbies on behalf of the state's 100 sheriffs.

Although Hagan supports enrolling all 100 North Carolina counties in the 287(g) program, her campaign argued that the federal government should pay for immigration enforcement, not the states.

"Immigration is a federal issue — the onus is on the federal government to find a solution that will be implemented across all 50 states instead of a few select counties," Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said in an e-mail.

Is the claim true? No. The 287(g) program is voluntary, so it is not a federal mandate.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole will be on The Morning Beat Thursday.

The Salisbury Republican will talk with host Curtis Wright starting at 8:45 a.m. on the show, which is on 93.7/106.3 FM in Wilmington.

The topic will be Dole's support for a 287(g) program to give local sheriffs the power to handle illegal immigration cases.

Normally, immigration is left to the federal government, while sheriff's deputies handle only crime.

Dole recently appeared with the N.C. Sheriffs' Association to promote the program, and state Sen. Fred Smith is campaigning for all sheriffs to participate.

Campbell University is moving its law school to downtown Raleigh.

The Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law will move to 225 Hillsborough St., a building owned by a company held by former state legislator Art Pope, according to a letter from Jimmy Barnes of NAI Carolantic Realty to tenants.

Campbell President Jerry M. Wallace visited the building this afternoon, along with other school officials and a photographer, tenants said.

Current tenants include the N.C. Sheriff's Association, the N.C. Technology Association, the Bob Orr gubernatorial campaign and several nonprofits that Pope helps fund: the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law, the Civitas Institute and Americans for Prosperity's state chapter.

According to the letter, the sale is expected to be final by early March, and renovations will begin next summer.