New Orleans altered its sanctuary city policy last week in response to increasing crime rates and to further comply with federal law. Under the new policy police can honor ICE detainer requests but are still prohibited from asking or checking a person’s immigration status.
The new policy was announced during a congressional hearing by the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. During the hearing Louisiana Attorney General, Jeff Landry, said sanctuary city policies, "allow illegals to commit crimes, then roam free in our communities."
Landry pointed out that other sanctuary cities are seeing crime rates increase, specifically Los Angeles, and that these policies, "encourage further illegal immigration and promote an underground economy that sabotages the tax base."
The Department of Justice’s own inspector general released a report a few months ago that said that sanctuary policies violate federal law. The DOJ received pressure from Congress and has begun pulling federal funding for cities with sanctuary policies.
While New Orleans’ new policy does solve the ICE detainer compliance problem, Michael E. Horowitz, the inspector general for the DOJ, says that he is not sure if these changes go far enough to comply with federal law in order to receive federal funding.
Read more on this story at The Washington Examiner.
