As the clock winds down for N.C. Gov. Josh Stein to take action on a pair of GOP bills that would expand state and local cooperation with immigration authorities, protesters gathered in Raleigh demanding that he veto them.

Protesters rallied Wednesday evening across the street from the governor’s mansion in downtown Raleigh, where a number of speakers denounced the immigration enforcement agenda Republicans have pursued at the national level, and in North Carolina, and called on Stein to block both bills with his veto pen.

“These bills put us at a tipping point,” said Emily Chavez, a member of the Durham Public Schools Board of Education. “Will we give in to an authoritarian regime, or will we fight for a just and humanitarian society?”

Chavez said the bills would only “stoke fear and anxiety” among immigrants who are in the country without legal status, and keep such people “in the status of second-class citizens whose labor is exploited but whose rights are denied.”

“It is not right to benefit economically and culturally from the presence of a group of people, and then turn around and terrorize that same group of people,” Chavez said.

Stein hasn’t said what action he will take on the two bills, Senate Bill 153 and House Bill 318. The last day for Stein to take action on both bills is Friday.

He has faced sustained calls from immigrants rights groups in recent months to resist the Trump administration’s enforcement efforts, and block related legislation that is advanced by the GOP majority in the state legislature.

Addressing Stein, Chavez said the governor would have “nothing to lose by vetoing” both bills, and “nothing to win” by allowing them to become law. On the other hand, she said, “people all across this state have a lot to lose if you allow these hateful and unnecessary bills to pass.”

Another speaker, Rev. Rob Stephens, addressed Stein and said to cheers from the crowd: “Do what’s right, you know what’s right to do, you have no excuse not to do it.”

Stephens then led the crowd in a chant of “Stein, get a spine.”

What would NC immigration bills do?

The first bill, SB 153, spearheaded by Senate leader Phil Berger, would expand cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to state law enforcement agencies beyond the law Republicans enacted last year, which requires sheriffs at the local level to cooperate with ICE.

SB 153 would require four agencies — the N.C. Departments of Public Safety and Adult Correction, as well as the State Highway Patrol and Bureau of Investigation — to participate in the federal 287(g) program. The program allows state and local law enforcement officers to carry out immigration enforcement duties performed by federal agents, under training and supervision by ICE.

The second bill, HB 318, was sponsored by House Speaker Destin Hall. The bill seeks to revise House Bill 10, the major ICE cooperation bill the GOP enacted last year over former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto, which focused on sheriffs.

HB 318 requires sheriffs to notify ICE before they release anyone in their custody that the agency is seeking with an immigration detainer.

A spokesperson for Stein said last week “the governor will continue to review the bill,”

“He has made clear that if someone commits a crime and they are here illegally, they should be deported,” the spokesperson said.

Both bills were sent to Stein on June 10. Once he receives a bill that has been passed by both chambers, he has 10 days to sign it, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature.

Other groups have organized another protest for Thursday evening with a march scheduled to go from Moore Square to the governor’s mansion, where they also will ask Stein to veto the bills.

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