BATON ROUGE, La. — As protests erupt across the country over aggressive immigration enforcement tactics, Louisiana lawmakers approved a package of legislation this week that’ll aid the ongoing federal crackdown on deportation.
Amid growing national tensions, Louisiana is the latest red state that expanded its immigration enforcement role — crafting a legislative promise to cooperate with federal agencies.
Law enforcement agents and public officials could face jail time if they purposefully obstruct, delay or ignore federal immigration enforcement efforts, under one Louisiana bill. Another measure requires state agencies — including the departments of Health, Education, Corrections, Children & Family Services, and Motor Vehicles — to verify, track and report anyone illegally in the U.S. who is receiving state services.
The bills head to Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, a tough-on-crime conservative and staunch ally of President Donald Trump, who is likely to sign them into law.
Following Trump’s pledge to remove millions of people who are in the country illegally, immigration raids have ramped up from coast to coast. Federal agencies have sought to enlist state and local help, alerting federal authorities of immigrants wanted for deportation and holding them until federal agents take custody.
Louisiana’s GOP-dominated Legislature passed a bill to ensure just that.
The measure expands the crime of malfeasance in office, which is punishable with up to 10 years in jail. Essentially, it would make it a crime for a public official or employee to refuse to comply with requests from agencies like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It also prohibits public officials, including police and judges, from knowingly releasing a person who “illegally entered or unlawfully remained” in the U.S. from their custody without providing advance notice to ICE.
“This is one of those bills that says it’s against the law not to enforce the law,” said Republican state Sen. Jay Morris.
Additionally, the bill expands the crime of obstruction of justice to include any act “intended to hinder, delay, prevent, or otherwise interfere with or thwart federal immigration enforcement efforts,” including civil immigration proceedings.
Tia Fields, an advocate for the Louisiana Organization for Refugees and Immigrants, said she fears the measures will have a “chilling effect” and could potentially criminalize “ordinary acts of assistance or advice” by advocates, religious leaders, attorneys or organizations.
Louisiana, which does not share a border with a foreign country, is one of several states attempting to penalize local officials who don’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Most recently, under a new law in Tennessee, local officials who vote to adopt sanctuary policies could face up to six years in prison. Other states allow residents or the local attorney general to sue officials and state governments if they limit or refuse to comply with federal immigration enforcement efforts.
But threats of repercussions have gone beyond the creation of legislation. Most recently, as the National Guard was deployed to protests in Los Angeles, Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s “ border czar,” hinted that elected officials could face arrest if they interfere with agents on the ground.
Amid growing tensions over immigration enforcement, Louisiana has made national headlines for its role.
Nearly 7,000 people are being held in the state’s nine immigration detention centers. Among them is Mahmoud Khalil, a student and legal U.S. resident whom the Trump administration jailed over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University.
With a spotlight on Louisiana, bills and policies targeting migrants suspected of entering the country illegally were pushed to the forefront by Landry and legislators. Ranging from banning sanctuary city policies to sending Louisiana National Guard members to the U.S.-Mexico border.
One measure, passed this week, codifies an executive order of Landry. It requires state agencies to verify the citizenship of people attempting to receive or use state services and benefits. The agencies would collect and track such data, submitting an annual report to the governor, attorney general and Legislature, in addition to posting it publicly online.
Any agency that does not comply risks having its funding withheld.
Republican state Sen. Blake Miguez, who authored the legislation, said it was crafted so officials and residents know how much money and what “services or benefits have been afforded” to immigrants who are in the country illegally.
But another bill goes a step further — requiring state agencies to refer the applicant’s information, “including unsatisfactory immigration status,” to ICE.
State Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who opposed the bill, asked Miguez if the measure could result in families being separated.
Miguez said that while that’s “a bit of a stretch,” ultimately it is up to federal authorities and what they do with the information.