BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – A Louisiana 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 won approval from lawmakers Wednesday and is likely to reach the House desk soon. governor lie.
Amid national battles between Republican and Democratic states President Joe Biden on how and who should enforce the U.S.-Mexico border, a growing list of Republican Party-led states have passed measures aimed at further deepening enforcement against migrants. However, laws similar to Louisiana’s — in Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas — are currently facing legal challenges.
Texas was only allowed to enforce its migrant enforcement law for a few confusing hours in March as legal battles raged in federal courts. During that time, Texas authorities announced that no arrests had been made under the law, and the short time frame revealed that many sheriffs were unprepared, incapable, or uninterested in enforcing it.
The Texas law remains on hold by a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court, which heard arguments from both supporters and opponents in April. It is unclear when the panel will make a ruling.
Like the Texas law, Louisiana’s bill seeks to expand the authority of state and local law enforcement. The bill would create the crime of “illegal entry or reentry” in Louisiana, which is punishable by 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 offence. .
In addition, Senator Valarie Hodges, the Republican who sponsored the bill, said it would “start the deportation process.” Currently, immigration enforcement regarding illegal entry and deportations has long been the exclusive domain of federal law enforcement.
Supporters of such legislation argue that it is necessary to protect American citizens, and accuse the federal government, particularly Biden, of neglecting its responsibilities to enforce immigration law.
The Biden administration has said the law illegally encroaches on federal authority over immigration enforcement. Additionally, opponents claim the bill is unconstitutional, will do nothing to make the state safer, and will fuel negative and false rhetoric targeting 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. In Tennessee, the governor recently signed a bill requiring law enforcement agencies in the state to communicate with federal immigration authorities if they discover people in the country illegally. Measures that mirror parts of Texas law are currently set to take effect in Oklahoma and Iowa in July.
The Louisiana bill passed along party lines in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, after just three minutes of floor discussion and without any lawmaker taking to the podium to argue against it. The bill will go back to the Republican Party-dominated Senate to agree on minor amendments, a procedural step. If the Senate agrees, which is more than likely the case, the bill will head to the desk of Governor Landry, who has been a vocal proponent of states getting involved in migrant law enforcement.
If the Republican signs the bill into law, it would only take effect if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds Texas law or if the U.S. Constitution is amended to increase enforcement power at local borders, based on language in the legislation.
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. Earlier this week, Louisiana lawmakers gave final approval to a bill that, if signed into law, would ban sanctuary city policies that allow local law enforcement officers to refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials unless ordered by a court.
