Louisiana Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Jeff Landry is trying to pull off an ugly combo. Landry and a number of Republican AGs have sued the Biden administration over its efforts to preserve the idea behind America’s asylum laws, but they have to show standing to bring suit. Landry and other AGs need to show that their states have been harmed by Biden’s changes, and Landry’s answer to that challenge is to subpoena three small non-profits that work with immigrants: Home is Here NOLA, Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy (ISLA), and Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention.
Landry’s subpoena requests that these non-profits identify any asylum seekers that they work with, any government assistance that these asylum seekers receive, and any government contracts that the non-profits have. Landry’s looking for evidence that the state spent money on these asylum seekers, but it would have the additional benefit from his perspective of damaging the non-profits, whose clients are understandably suspicious of the authorities. If their clients’ information isn’t safe with these organizations, it will be hard for these agencies to do their jobs.
All are excellent organizations that we recommend to people who need their services. ISLA and Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention help immigrants manage the legal system, which frequently rolls over immigrants that don’t have lawyers and, in some cases, the language comprehension to appreciate what is happening to them. Home is Here helps foster a sense of community for immigrants in New Orleans, connecting new immigrants to established ones who can help them with the challenges that accompany getting settled in a new country.
“The AG is on record again and again and again opposing immigration and immigrants,” Bill Quigley told The New Orleans Advocate. Quigley is the director of the Loyola Law Clinic and is representing the groups alongside the Center for Constitutional Rights and Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP of New York.
“They’re very reluctant to turn anything over to him.”
While Landry has taken a hard-line stance as AG against immigrants, documents uncovered in 2020 show that in 2017, companies he owned with his brother made extensive use of Mexican workers that could be employed at a lower wage than American workers. Documents supplied by Texas businessman Marco Pequera, who committed visa fraud to bring in the Mexican workers, show that Landry took steps to conceal his involvement, Pesquera’s involvement, and exaggerate the appearance of need for these foreign workers.
Bryn Stole and John Simmerman of The New Orleans Advocate tell the slightly dense story of the Landry brothers and Pequera’s efforts to win oil industry contracts with Mexican labor—including Landry’s denial of any wrongdoing—but his apparent selective vigilance where immigration enforcement is concerned makes his recent subpoena look like political posturing.
“It’s a bully move to try to intimidate these folks into identifying people that the attorney general can target,” Bill Quigley said.
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