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CHARLOTTE -- The national debate on illegal immigration turned local Friday afternoon.

The three Republican candidates for Mecklenburg County Commission at-large -- Jim Pendergraph, Dan Ramirez and Corey Thompson -- held a news conference and called on the Democrat-controlled local and state governments to get tougher on illegal immigration.

"Make sure that the taxes they pay don’t run us all out of the county and that our county ends up bankrupt paying for services people are receiving here who aren't even legally in the country," he said.

They said illegal immigrants are unfairly draining county resources and local policy needs stronger teeth to better enforce illegal immigration laws. They added that Democrats on all levels of government haven't attacked the illegal immigration problem hard enough. Pendergraph wants the General Assembly to lobby harder for an Arizona-type law.

The Republicans say the county's Department of Social Services doesn't do enough to verify Social Security numbers and match names, and that CMS won't press harder to check if illegal immigrant students are receiving free or reduced lunch.

County commission chairman Jennifer Roberts, a Democrat, said any DSS changes "would be a huge administrative burden to a department that's already serving more people with less staff.”

The candidates’ comments Friday afternoon came two days after a federal judge temporarily blocked portions of the Arizona law. That ruling included a measure that would have allowed police to question someone's immigration status if officers believe they're in the country illegally. Arizona's governor appealed the ruling, which could go to the Supreme Court.

"Arizona is empowered by the power of the United States to protect its citizens in upholding the law when the federal government neglects to fulfill its responsibility," said Thompson.

The media briefing got tense at times as local Hispanic leaders weighed in on the topic.

"Would you like to get all these people some boats and planes and ship all of them back to their country, and actually do we have the resources to do that?" Latino advocate Maudia Melendez.

In 2006, while Pendergraph was sheriff, Mecklenburg County became the first in North Carolina to launch the federal 287g program, which checks the immigration status of every person arrested and processed at the jail.

Republicans are hoping to regain control of the mecklenburg county commission for the first time since 2004.