Two controversial state bills in the Louisiana Legislature — both designed to aid federal and state crackdowns on immigration — are in the final stages of becoming law after passing overwhelmingly in the state House of Representatives Monday.
With days to go in the spring legislative session, Louisiana’s House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of Senate Bill 100, which requires agencies to track undocumented immigrants who receive state services, and Senate Bill 15, which makes it a crime for law enforcement agents, and others, to refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement agencies. The session is set to adjourn on Thursday.
The bills both advance the priorities of Gov. Jeff Landry, a conservative immigration hardliner and ally of President Donald Trump.
Senate Bill 100, sponsored by Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, which requires service providing public agencies – including the state Department of Education, Department of Corrections and the Department of Children & Family Services – to collect data and report to the State on the immigration status of people who receive those services. It passed 74-27 Monday afternoon.
Senate Bill 15, sponsored by Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, criminalizes the failure of local officials – including sheriffs and other law enforcement officers – to cooperate with federal immigration agencies, with penalties of up to 10 years in prison. It also criminalizes acts by everyday Louisiana residents deemed to obstruct or “thwart” federal immigration enforcement efforts. It passed 71-30.
If Senate Bill 15 becomes law, it would directly conflict with immigration policies adopted by the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office and, potentially, the New Orleans Police Department, both of which are under federal orders to limit their cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal immigration agencies.
Both have already passed the Senate. SB100 will now head back to the Senate for Senate President Cameron Henry’s signature and then to Landry’s desk for his signature.
Senate Bill 15, however, was amended in the House before final passage. The Senate will have to vote to approve the amended version before it can move on to become law.
Advocates against the pieces of legislation say the bills, once effected, will push Louisiana’s immigrant community into the shadows.
“With the passage of SB 100 and SB 15, our state has sent a chilling message: that Immigrant families and anyone seeking safety or services are seen as expendable.” said Tia Fields, who manages policy for advocacy group Louisianan Organization for Refugees and Immigrants in Baton Rouge. “Let’s be clear: these bills aren’t about public safety. They’re about punishment.”
Senate Bill 15
If enacted, Senate Bill 15 will be the first state law in the U.S. that criminalizes interference with immigration enforcement efforts, considered to be civil matters, or refusals to cooperate with federal immigration agencies.
During debate on the House Floor on Monday Rep. Candace Newell, D-New Orleans, repeatedly asked how the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office would follow the law, which directly contradicts an agency policy that was created under federal court order.
The bill requires jailers, including sheriffs, to honor administrative requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to hold an immigrant beyond their release date from jail so that they can be brought into ICE custody.
But a Sheriff’s Office policy prohibits the agency from honoring hold requests except in cases where a jail detainee is accused of a particularly serious crime. The policy exists as the result of a 2013 federal court settlement stemming from a 2011 civil rights case in which two men said they were illegally held in the city’s jail for months at the request of ICE. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, another immigration hardliner, is challenging that settlement agreement.
Louisiana already has a law, Act 314 of 2024 – enacted through Senate Bill 208, sponsored by Miguez and passed last year – that blocks local law enforcement agencies from adopting so-called ”sanctuary” like the one at the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office. But unlike Senate Bill 15 — which calls for prison sentences of up to 10 years — that is a civil law, carrying no jail time for failure to comply.
“The Orleans Parish Sheriff, who should be trying to get out from under the handcuffs of the consent decree, [is] using that as a shield to avoid the possible implications of refusing to cooperate with ICE,” Morris told committee members.
Will Harrell, senior program monitor for the Sheriff’s Office said while he’s disappointed that the bill passed, he is “not surprised with the outcome, given the anti-immigrant climate.” He said he’s concerned about how Orleans Parish Sheriff, Susan Hutson, will follow both the state law and the federal court order
“The sheriff does not intend to be a breaker of laws,” Harrell said. “It’s just a question of which law we need to follow.”
Senate Bill 100
Senate Bill 100 mirrors a 2024 executive order from Landry, signed in the early days of his governorship, that requires state departments and their sub-agencies to calculate and report on the amount of money that undocumented immigrants are costing the state. According to Rep. Michael Johnson, R-Pineville — who brought the bill to the House floor — Landry and Murrill requested SB15 be crafted to codify the language in that executive order.
Undocumented immigrants are already shut out of some state-administered services. They are ineligible for food stamp benefits or Medicaid, for example, and they can’t get drivers’ licenses. But they attend schools, get medical treatment at public hospitals and use emergency shelters, among other things.
Advocates against the bill said recording identifying information like citizenship or immigration status, will not only affect undocumented immigrants, but also people who may not trust their government for other reasons, making it less likely that they seek out essential services like medical care.
“Not all of these services require any kind of identification right now, [like] the low barrier homeless shelters or food banks or things like that, and there are people who are going to be unwilling to get benefits if it requires of citizenship verification,” Sissy Phleger, a safety net analyst for state think tank Invest in Louisiana, said in a phone interview last week. “It is going to burden people in Louisiana who don’t have enough to eat. I don’t have a place to live and that seems cruel and unnecessary.”
During discussions over the bill on the House floor, Democratic Caucus chairperson Rep. Matthew Willard, D-New Orleans, expressed concern over the proposed penalties in the bill: the withholding of funding to agencies that do not comply.
“For me it seems kind of like a threat,” Willard said.
Johnson called the penalty an “incentive” to follow the law.
“This is just transparency,” Johnson said.
This article first appeared on Verite News New Orleans and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
