On Tuesday night, voters handed a decisive loss to the incumbent sheriff of North Carolina’s largest county, which includes Charlotte, garnering a win for grass-roots efforts to oppose hard-line immigration policies. The central issue that emerged in the Mecklenburg County race was Sheriff Irwin Carmichael’s cooperation with the Trump administration’s deportation policy.

“Camichael [sic] shouldn’t be surprised,” tweeted Lorella Praeli, the director of immigration policy and campaigns at American Civil Liberties Union. “He chose to facilitate Trump’s deportation force. Sheriffs around the country, take notice.”

Carmichael’s department had participated in a controversial program launched by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to form partnerships with state and local law enforcement. The 287(g) program, which delegates immigration roles to state and local authorities, has become a lightning rod political issue since Donald Trump’s election to the presidency.

According to ICE, the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office’s participation in the program led to nearly 300 deportations in fiscal year 2017 alone. As The Intercept reported in April, a broad coalition of community groups pitched last night’s Democratic primary as a referendum on that policy.

“287(g) is going to be history in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. It’s going to be an event,” said Garry McFadden, a former Charlotte-Mecklenburg police detective, who beat Carmichael in the primary.