The Louisiana Senate voted Wednesday to ban New Orleans and other municipalities from adopting immigration-focused "sanctuary policies" as Republican lawmakers pursue a raft of conservative goals under Gov. Jeff Landry.
The Legislature's upper chamber approved , sponsored by Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, on a 26-11 vote Wednesday afternoon after a brief discussion, sending the legislation to the House. The bill would bar cities, towns and parishes from passing laws that could impede federal immigration enforcement or prevent local police from helping federal agents carry out those efforts.
New Orleans-area lawmakers say Miguez's bill singles out their city, where a policy adopted says the agency will not detain people who are in the U.S. illegally unless a judge orders it — an effort by city leaders to encourage migrants to report criminal activity and seek help without fear of being deported.
"It’s very clear the bill is targeted to the city of New Orleans," said Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans. "A lot of legislation of late has been targeted at the city of New Orleans."
Under questioning in a legislative hearing this month, Miguez denied that the bill is an attack on the Crescent City, describing the legislation as an attempt to align localities across the state with the federal immigration system.
State Senator Blake Miguez, R-22, discusses SB203 during the the Senate's Judiciary C committee on Tuesday, March 26, 2024.
"America’s borders and immigration system is broken," Miguez said. "Sanctuary city policies make the (problem) worse by encouraging illegal immigration and prohibiting proper immigration law enforcement."
Filed amid a fight between Republican states and Democratic President Joe Biden over , the legislation is part of a national conservative backlash against municipalities that block local officials from helping the feds enforce immigration laws. Republican-led states including ,, Florida and have banned "sanctuary" policies in recent years.
Louisiana is also one of several GOP-led statehouses that hope to follow the lead of Texas by to enforce immigration laws — historically the exclusive duty of federal agents.
Miguez’s bill goes further than laws passed by Louisiana’s neighbors, as it says local agencies “shall make best efforts” to facilitate immigration enforcement, said Mary Yanik, a law professor at Tulane University and the director of the school's Immigrant Rights Clinic. That language signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, in 2019.
SB 208 does not specify those “best efforts,” Yanik said. The bill also carries vague exemptions for unauthorized immigrants who are witnesses to or victims of a crime, she said, rules that could pressure immigrants into giving testimony.
"Ambiguity does not help local law enforcement in these situations," Yanik said.
A New Orleans Police Department spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment on the legislation.
U.S. cities' adoption of "sanctuary city" policies — a term originating in the 1980s when places of worship opened their doors to refugees of civil conflicts in Latin America — accelerated during the presidential term of Donald Trump from 2017 to 2021. Some immigration advocates say the term overstates the protections migrants receive under some community policies.
After New Orleans adopted its policy in 2016, then-New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu clashed with the Trump administration, which was enacting a hardline immigration enforcement strategy. Trump's Justice Department in 2017 to nine "sanctuary cities," including New Orleans, pressuring them to prove their compliance with federal immigration law or risk losing federal dollars.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony for the Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences New Orleans at the former World Trade Center building on Wednesday, May 2, 2018. (Photo by Brett Duke, | The Times-Picayune)
New Orleans officials replied that their policy was revised to explicitly require compliance with the federal law Trump’s DOJ had accused cities of violating.
Miguez's immigration bill falls into a category of legislation filed en masse by Louisiana conservatives since Landry, a Republican, took office in January — policies, ranging from tougher prison sentences to crackdowns on labor unions, that Republicans have aspired to make reality for years but struggled to pass under Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat who held office from 2016 until early this year.
In 2016, Landry, a conservative firebrand who was then serving as Louisiana's attorney general, stumped at the Capitol for a similar ban on "sanctuary policies." That bill . Its sponsor, Rep. Valerie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, now a state Senator, tried bringing the legislation back the following year. It .
As governor, one of Landry’s first acts was to order state prison officials to begin publishing by this summer information on crimes immigrants commit in the state. State agencies must also soon report to the governor public expenses that benefit immigrants.
Miguez's bill initially proposed giving the governor's office authority to withhold funding from police offices that don't comply with the law. An amendment approved on the Senate floor withdrew that provision, and the bill would instead let judges hold in contempt charges agencies that fail to comply.
