New Orleans is an important city for Louisiana. According to the Bureau of Governmental Research, the City of New Orleans is expected to generate around $1.25 billion in tax revenue in 2019. The city’s robust tourism industry bring visitors to the state from all over the world.
According to the Department of Justice, it’s also a sanctuary city – in spite of the fact that city officials have long insisted that it isn’t. And Sen. Bill Cassidy has a problem with that. He is co-sponsoring the recently reintroduced “Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act,” which, if passed, would withhold federal grant money from those cities.
“In this act, we just say ‘if you refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement, then you sacrifice your federal funding for other issues’,” said Cassidy.
Sanctuary cities limit their cooperation with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to protect low-priority immigrants from deportation while continuing to turn over those who commit serious crimes.
“There are some cities that make no pretense,” Cassidy said. “They are sanctuary cities and they are not going to obey federal law. I think there should be a consequence.”
For her part, in 2018, Mayor Cantrell issued this statement:
“The NOPD’s policy on immigration is in full compliance with all federal laws related to sharing information about the immigration status of individuals in our community, and in compliance with our consent decree.”
Jenn Bentley is a freelance writer and editor whose work has been featured in publications such as Yahoo News, The High Tech Society, Examiner.com, and more. She covers breaking news for Big Easy Magazine.
