BATON ROUGE — Two immigration enforcement bills, that were passed by the Louisiana Legislature, are awaiting the signature of Gov. Jeff Landry before becoming law.
Immigration advocates across Louisiana say if the bills become law, they could place one of the state’s most vulnerable populations at risk: children, especially underage legal citizens whose parents just so happen to be illegal immigrants.
Senate Bill 15 would make it a crime for law enforcement agents, private individuals, and public officials to obstruct federal immigration enforcement or civil immigration proceedings.
Senate Bill 100 would require state agencies to track and report the services received by undocumented immigrants to determine the amount of tax dollars spent on them. These agencies include the Louisiana Department of Education, the Department of Corrections, Children and Family Services, and the Department of Motor Vehicles, among others.
Agencies would then need to report how many undocumented immigrants they serve and the cost of these services. That report would be sent to the governor, the attorney general, and the legislature and published online.
Both laws were passed amid widespread protests across the country over immigration enforcement, including in Los Angeles which has been besieged by protests and riots in the previous week, resulting in 200 Marines being deployed into the city this week to protect federal buildings and other properties.
In May, Gov. Landry signed an executive order dubbed “Operation Geaux,” which authorized state and local enforcement officers to perform specified immigration officer functions under ICE’s direction and oversight through the 287(g) program, further increasing the power of local and state-wide law enforcement to enforce federal immigration policies.
Tia Fields, policy manager for the Louisiana Organization for Refugees and Immigrants, testified against one of the bills during a legislative committee hearings, and also spoke with Unfiltered with Kiran about the potential detrimental effects the bill could have on some children in the state.
Unintended Consequences
Fields says that because SB 100 requires agencies to track undocumented immigrants who get receive services, it may deter illegal immigrants with legal children from pursuing those services, which could include anything from applications for free lunch to potential lifesaving medical services.
“As a parent or guardian of a minor child, that parent or guardian has to apply for benefits, and that may look like your free reduced lunch. That looks like your FAFSA application, among many other things. With these bills being passed, you’re going to see a decline in services that children receive based off the fact that their families are in fear of applying for benefits because now the law states that if I suspect that this person is undocumented, I’m going to flag them to ICE and let them go through the proceedings,” Fields said.
“What is intended to be a guardrail from (deterring) individuals from entering our country illegally is going to hurt the children of those individuals who were born here in the first place.”
During debate on the House floor over the bill, Rep. Michael T. Johnson said the bill was simply about data collection and was not intended to disrupt services from legal citizens, no matter their age.
“We want to know how much taxpayers are spending to provide services for illegal immigrants in Louisiana. This is just to recover that information. Currently, we don’t have the means by which to do that, and it’s in line with the Governor’s executive order issued months ago,” Johnson explained.
East Baton Rouge School District Superintendent Lamont Cole sent a letter to parents in February, writing “no law enforcement agency is permitted to remove a child from any of our campuses without authorization from a parent, legal guardian or a court order.”
Fields says she fears that Cole could potentially face charges under SB 15 if Cole attempted to interfere with immigration enforcement efforts on campus, even if he was acting under guidance from the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which grants parents and guardians rights from having information about their children disclosed without permission.
“It (bill) didn’t give any specifications for a person acting within an ethical duty, or within the laws of the federal government,” Fields said.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has previously said that students in schools are not a priority when comes to immigration enforcement.
If signed by Gov. Landry, the laws would take effect on Aug. 1.
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