According to a bill now being debated in the Louisiana legislature, local police may soon be able to arrest anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant. State legislatures across the country are considering several proposals similar to the initiative, which draws inspiration from Texas’ anti-illegal immigration statute.
Senate Bill 388, presented by Republican State Senator Valarie Hodges, creates a new offense for an illegal immigrant to enter or re-enter the state after being deported. The statute penalizes violations with up to a year in prison and a $4,000 fine.
In order to help limit the “influx with respect to illegal immigration that consequently threatens the safety and security of Louisiana citizens,” the governor of Louisiana would also have the authority to form an interstate compact with Texas.
SB 388 was approved by a Senate committee this week and is expected to pass through the Republican-controlled legislature and governor. Hodges, a Republican, stated that the measure is essential because of the “open border” and inaction by the federal government.
“I’ve been concerned about it for several years,” she told Fox News Digital in an interview. “The fact that the federal government is not doing their job and they’re not protecting us.”
Hodges likened the scenario to guarding one’s home.
“You wouldn’t just let anyone into your home, and that’s what we’re doing at the border. “We’re saying anyone and everyone can come in, and we’re discovering drug cartels, human trafficking cartels, trafficking children, women, men, and boys with labor and sex trafficking,” she said, noting the arrests of MS-13 gang members and people on the terrorist screening database.
Hodges also cited a number of violent crimes, including rapes, that occurred in Louisiana.
“We have an immigration policy that allows people to register and come here legally. “We can vet them, we know who they are, and we can’t protect people in Louisiana unless we do,” she said.
The Biden administration’s legal challenge has held up Texas’ version of the law, approved in December, in court. It was momentarily allowed to go into force this month but was later stopped by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The government claims that the Texas law, S.B. 4, interferes with the implementation of immigration rules, which is a federal obligation.
“S.B. 4 will not only make Texas communities less safe, but it will also place a burden on law enforcement and cause chaos and confusion at our southern border.” “S.B. 4 is just another example of Republican officials politicizing the border while preventing real solutions,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement last month.
Other states have begun to follow Texas’ lead, implying that the continuing legal dispute may have direct consequences for them as well. Iowa just sent a bill to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk, and similar bills are being considered in New Hampshire, Tennessee, and Oklahoma.
It reflects growing dissatisfaction among states further in the interior with the effects of the now three-year border crisis on their states, including strain on social services, criminality, and other difficulties.
The Biden administration has advocated for additional financing and immigration reform, claiming that it is working within a flawed system to address a hemispheric crisis. Republicans say that the issue is the product of Biden’s policies.
However, as that debate continues in Washington, D.C., states such as Louisiana are taking matters into their own hands. Hodges, who expressed confidence that the bill would be signed into law, stated that states have a constitutional right to self-defense.
“Our Founding Fathers and our Constitution gave us that right, that if we are being invaded or we have imminent danger, our state’s rights supersede what the federal government is derelict in their duty to do,” she went on to say. “And that was what motivated me to do this bill—bbecause if they’re not going to do their job, we have to do it.”
