Democrat Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson is asking for someone to make their day on her, so the state of Louisiana should oblige.
Republican incoming and former Pres. Donald Trump has served notice he intends to have his administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency much more aggressively track and cue up for deporting illegal aliens, and the New Orleans area ICE office has kvetched about OPSO’s uncooperative attitude in this task. But on this issue Hutson recently told those demanding greater cooperation from her office to look at her hand with its index, middle, and ring fingers extended to read between the lines.
By law, ICE can ask local law enforcement agencies – who refer about 70 percent of all illegal aliens for prosecution and deportation – to notify as early as possible before they release a removable noncitizen and to hold the noncitizen for up to an additional 48 hours beyond the period a suspect may be held without being charged with an offense under state and local law in order for ICE to evaluate and potentially take possession of the alien. However, this only is a request that LEAs don’t have to follow.
Many do, but local governments with officials ideologically opposed to strict immigration enforcement often flout the procedure. Hutson is one of these, but has tried to establish a fig leaf to cover for that hostility using a consent decree a dozen years old. In 2013, her predecessor signed off on an agreement formulated as a result of a suit brought by a couple of illegal aliens held for months on end without following the legal process, which apparently was not an uncommon practice.
That document notes that “the Sheriff shall adopt and implement the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office Policy on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Procedures (herein "Policy") incorporated in the Consent Judgment.” The policy simultaneously adopted assures that OPSO won’t typically check for an arrestee’s citizenship status (for incarceration; unlike in other parish’s, the Orleans sheriff only runs the jail) unless charged with one of several serious felony offenses.
That led Hutson recently to declare, “I’m a lawyer. We’re going to stick to the law and the court order, and that’s what we’re going to do …. I cannot do ICE’s work. We have too many things we need to do.” (Actually, according to the Louisiana State Bar Association, Hutson is not licensed to practice law in the state.) Her rationale banked on the decree and policy, even in the face of Act 314 of the 2024 Regular Session of the Legislature which mandates that LEAs honor ICE detainment requests, to provide some kind of legal justification and not just mere opposition.
But before she keeps thumbing her nose at ICE, maybe Hutson ought to read the decree more carefully. Because immediately following the passage agreeing to follow the restrictive policy comes the phrase “The Policy shall remain premanently [sic] in effect absent a change in federal or state law applicable to immigration detainers” (emphasis added). And Act 314 is just such a change.
So, with Hutson inviting the state to do something about it, it should. GOP Atty. Gen. Liz Murrill’s office should sue her for violating R.S. 33:81 and have a state court oversee OPSO following Act 314 (familiar territory for her, as a federal court continues to lambaste her office’s backsliding over another consent decree).
Other things could happen such as changes in federal law with Trump and a GOP Congress in charge, but at least get the ball rolling at the state level. The state needs to tell her she’s going to make its day if she persists in obstinance, and if she does crack down on her so as to facilitate ICE in ridding Orleans Parish of criminals, even if their only crime is illegal entry into America.
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