Politicians in Louisiana will quickly take up a bill that would give local and state law protection the authority to make arrests for people suspected of entering the country illegally.
Senate Bill 388 resembles a contentious Texas law that is up for debate in the Biden presidency and civil rights organizations, who contend that it unlawfully overturns the federal government’s authority to enforce immigration laws and may cause panic at the country’s southern border.
The Louisiana costs, filed last week by Sen. Valarie Hodges, R- Denham Springs, is scheduled for a reading Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary C commission. Yet if S. B. 388 passes the government and is signed into law, but its fate will ultimately focus on how the courts interpret Senate Bill 4’s interpretation of the Texas law.
In a conflict between Texas governors, that regulation has been a focal point. Whether or not states have the authority to develop their personal immigration policy are debated by Greg Abbott and the Biden administration. Next Tuesday, after months of backwards- and- forth in the national courts, the U. S. Supreme Court recently allowed the Texas law to take impact before it was blocked by judges at the U. S. 5th Circuit , Court of Appeals in New Orleans. A landmark Supreme Court decision may overturn long-held legal precedent that favored federal immigration control over that of the state.
Similar legislation is being considered by several other Republican-controlled states this year, including Kansas and Oklahoma, with Iowa lawmakers passing a bill last week that was superior to that in other states.
Similar to the Texas law, the Louisiana costs would increase the expert of state and local law enforcement in what is now the scope of national immigration and customs enforcement officials. It would include “unlawful access or immoral rehabilitation by an humanoid” as a category of state crimes in Louisiana, with a one-year prison sentence for first-time offenses and two years for replicate offenses.
The proposed bill would also make an interstate small with various states, especially Texas, to maintain border security. The costs will depend on a decision in the Texas event. If passed, it would serve as a set rules and take effect right away in the event that a court decision favors the Lone Star State.
Hodges claimed that she has been working on the expenses since last November after years of awaiting the national government’s” to take action” on the frontier. During the Biden administration, the number of people who crossed the U.S. southern border from Mexico reached record highs, but those numbers significantly decreased from December 2023 to January 2024.
” We are being invaded and we’ve learned that many of those entering our nation are known terrorists, scammers, individual criminals and drug gang people”, Hodges said in an emailed statement to Verite News.
Illegal individuals have lower crime rates than citizens of the United States, according to research.
The bill’s critics claim that it overreaches state power in an illegal way.
According to Huey Fischer Garca, a team attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, the law may require state judges to behave similarly to immigration judges and local police officers to behave similarly to ICE officers.
” It’s going to make a delay in our courts, it’s going to dump state assets, and it’s not going to really reduce violence or make Louisiana any safer”, Fischer García said.
A” colossal power grab”
The bill comes as Gov. Jeff Landry, in his first months in office, has begun to implement his hardline stance on immigration. Landry ordered state agencies to gather and publish information about immigrants who live in Louisiana one week after taking over his new position in January. Landry claimed at the southern border of Texas in February that the Biden administration “has completely abdicated its responsibility” to enforce immigration law alongside Abbott and other Republican governors. Additionally, he sent 150 Louisiana National Guard soldiers to South Texas ‘ border.
The Landry’s office did not respond to requesting comments on this story.
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The Louisiana bill, in contrast to the Texas law, would not impose deportation laws on state officials. Additionally, the Texas law imposes harsher penalties for repeat offenses, including up to 20 years in prison, for illegal entry and re-entry. However, the Louisiana bill would place Louisiana in an interstate agreement with Texas and other states that would be willing to take part in Texas ‘ state-led border security initiatives.
Members of this compact would share law enforcement information and provide state resources to create surveillance systems and physical barriers to deter illegal activity along the border, according to the Louisiana bill.
Hodges, who has a history of supporting anti-immigration policy and whose campaign website credits her with leading a campaign in 2016 to “put an end to sanctuary cities in Louisiana,” said that the Constitution allows states to enter these compacts in the event of an invasion.
” We have a right to defend our nation”, Hodges said in a statement.
Immigration rights attorneys contend that S. B. The federal immigration code’s technical standards are broken by the poorly written bill 388. According to Sarah Rich, an attorney with the SPLC’s Immigrant Justice Litigation Team, the bill’s broad language makes it even apply to foreign tourists visiting New Orleans for Mardi Gras.
” Every word in the immigration code means something specific, and here they’re just throwing words around”, Rich said.
The Louisiana bill could lead law enforcement to racially profile individuals as well, Rich said:  ,” You’re asking local sheriff’s deputies, local cops, to try to figure out who is here unlawfully. …Of course, there are concerns about racial profiling due to how race is related to immigration status.
Another immigration bill in this year’s session, sponsored by Sen. Blake Miguez, R- New Iberia, would override any local, so- called sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Additionally, Miguel’s bill would grant the governor the authority to withhold state funding from local governments in the case of such policies. That bill, which passed out of committee, is awaiting a vote in the Senate.
Attorneys for the SPLC think that the bill is intended to attack New Orleans ‘ local immigration practices. Since 2013, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office has not responded to requests for ICE detainers, which is a common practice in sanctuary cities.
” It’s a tremendous power grab for a governor who has been incredibly hostile to both immigrants and New Orleans as a whole,” Fischer Garca said.
This article first appeared on Verite News, and it is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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