Today, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill filed legal action in federal court against “sanctuary” policies in New Orleans.

Since 2013, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office (OPSO) has been subject to a consent judgement that effectively requires it to treat its facilities as sanctuary jurisdictions from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Under that judgment’s mandated policy, the OPSO must “decline” all “ICE criminal warrants” unless the detainee is being prosecuted with murder, rape, kidnapping, treason, or armed robbery. It also forbids the OPSO from investigating the immigration status of any individual in its custody or providing that information to ICE. The policy bans ICE agents from interviewing any OPSO detainee without a court order, and it requires OPSO to ensure an inmate has legal counsel before it will allow ICE to conduct an interview. The consent decree is purported to have “permanent effect”—with one exception: “a change in federal or state law applicable to immigration detainers.” 

In May 2024, the Legislature changed state law (S.B. 208 by Blake Miguez, La. R.S. 33:81 et seq.) to require that state and local law enforcement comply with immigration detainers issued to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The change in state law applicable to immigration detainers should have prompted the parties to move to terminate or dissolve the consent judgement so that OPSO may come into compliance with state law—but no party has done so. Termination of that consent judgement would allow OPSO to not only to comply with state law regarding immigration detainers and public records, but also to stop its obstruction of lawful federal immigration enforcement. Such interference only hurts the people of Louisiana by allowing for senseless acts of violence committed by people who are illegally in our country.

“The people of Louisiana, through their representatives in the Legislature, have adamantly rejected ‘sanctuary’ policies that shield those who have broken our laws and endanger the men, women, and children of this State,” said General Murrill. “Governor Landry and I are committed to defending the Sovereign rights of Louisiana and her people, and we look forward to working with President Trump to end the wave of violent crime and drugs that has swept across this nation from the southern border for the last eight years.”   

For more information, read our Motion to Intervene and our Motion to Terminate or Dissolve.