BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana’s Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday introduced a bill that would give state and local law enforcement agencies the authority to arrest and jail people in the state who entered the U.S. illegally, similar to controversial legislation in Texas.
Amid national battles between Republican states and Democratic President Joe Biden over how and who should enforce the U.S.-Mexico border, Louisiana joins a growing list of legislatures seeking to expand states’ authority over border enforcement.
Supporters of the bill, like the legislation’s author, GOP state Sen. Valarie Hodges, say Louisiana has the “right to defend our nation.” Hodges has accused the federal government of neglecting its responsibilities in enforcing immigration law, an argument heard from Republican leaders across the country.
Opponents claim the bill is unconstitutional, will do nothing to make the state safer, and will only fuel negative and false rhetoric toward migrants.
Across the country, reliably red lawmakers have passed tougher immigration enforcement measures. The Oklahoma House has passed a bill that would ban state revenues from being used to provide benefits to those living in the state illegally. A bill in Tennessee awaiting the governor’s signature would require law enforcement agencies in the state to communicate with federal immigration authorities if they discover people in the country illegally. Measures mirroring parts of the Texas law are awaiting the governor’s signature in Iowa, while another is pending in the Idaho statehouse.
Although Louisiana does not border Mexico, bills and policies targeting migrants suspected of entering the country illegally have come to the forefront in the past four months under new conservative leadership. One bill aims to ban sanctuary city policies, which allow local law enforcement officers to refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials unless ordered by a court. Another would set up funding to send Louisiana National Guard members to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas. New Republican Gov. Jeff Landry has also begun directing state agencies to collect and publish data on migrants in the state.
“I think all of us here know that we have a crisis at the border and our federal government is doing nothing to help the states,” Senator Hodges said during floor debate Monday.
The Louisiana bill would create the crime of “illegal entry or reentry” into Louisiana. Illegal returns include people who were previously denied entry, expelled, deported, or otherwise removed from the US. The bill was passed by the Senate after ten minutes of debate along party lines and now goes to the House of Representatives.
Like the Texas law, which has been put on hold by a federal appeals court panel considering whether to block enforcement pending further appeals, Louisiana’s bill would expand the authority of state and local law enforcement. In addition, Hodges said it would “initiate the deportation process.” Currently, immigration enforcement regarding illegal entry and deportations has long been the exclusive domain of federal law enforcement.
Under Louisiana’s bill, anyone who violates the proposed law would face up to one year in prison and a $4,000 fine for a first offense, and up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine for a second offense. Necessary witnesses or victims of certain crimes – such as murder, rape, human trafficking, kidnapping, involuntary servitude and blackmail – would be an exception.
Additionally, the bill would authorize Governor Landry to enter into an interstate compact with Texas and other states willing to participate in Texas’ state-led border security efforts. Supporters say the provision will help prevent illegal border crossings by sharing information and “state resources to build surveillance systems and physical barriers to deter illegal activity along the border.”
Opponents of Louisiana’s bill say it oversteps state authority, would increase racial profiling and could clog the justice systems.
“It will create a backlog in our courts, it will drain state resources, and it will not actually reduce crime or make Louisiana safer,” Huey Fischer García, a staff attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said at a meeting. hearing on the bill last month.
If Louisiana’s bill passes the House of Representatives and is signed by the governor, who Hodges said supports the measure, it would only go into effect if the Supreme Court upholds the Texas law or if the U.S. Constitution is amended to expand enforcement power to expand local boundaries.
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Associated Press writers Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City, Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, and Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.
