§ 33:83 — Cooperation; federal immigration authorities

§83. Cooperation; federal immigration authorities
A. A law enforcement agency shall use best efforts to support the
enforcement of federal immigration law. This Section applies to an official,
representative, agent, or employee of the entity or agency only when the person is
acting within the scope of his official duties or within the scope of his employment.
B. For purposes of this Part, a state entity, local governmental entity, or law
enforcement agency, or an employee, an agent, or a representative of the entity or
agency, shall not prohibit or in any way restrict a law enforcement agency from
taking any of the following actions with respect to information regarding an alien's
immigration status, except as otherwise expressly prohibited by federal law:
(1) Sending the information to or requesting, receiving, or reviewing the
information from a federal immigration agency.
(2) Recording and maintaining the information.
(3) Exchanging the information with a federal immigration agency or another
state entity, local governmental entity, or law enforcement agency.
(4) Using the information to comply with an immigration detainer.
(5) Using the information to confirm the identity of a detainee by a law
enforcement agency.
C. For purposes of this Section, the term "applicable criminal case" means a
criminal case in which all of the following occur:
(1) The judgment requires the defendant alien to be confined in a secure
correctional facility.
(2) The judge indicates in the record that the defendant alien is subject to an
immigration detainer or otherwise indicates in the record that the defendant alien is
subject to a transfer into federal custody.
D. In an applicable criminal case, when the judge sentences a defendant alien
who is the subject of an immigration detainer to confinement, the judge shall issue
an order requiring the secure correctional facility in which the defendant alien shall
be confined to reduce the defendant alien's sentence by a determinate period of not
more than twelve days on the facility's determination that the completion of sentence
will facilitate the seamless transfer of the defendant alien into federal custody.
E. If the information specified in Subsection B of this Section is not available
at the time that the sentence is imposed in the case, but is received by a law
enforcement agency afterwards, the law enforcement agency shall notify the judge
who shall issue the order described by Subsection D of this Section as soon as the
information becomes available.
F. A state entity, local governmental entity, or law enforcement agency that,
pursuant to Subsection H of this Section, withholds information regarding the
immigration information of a victim or witness to a criminal offense shall document
the victim's or witness's cooperation in the entity's or agency's investigative records
related to the offense and shall retain the records for at least ten years for the purpose
of audit, verification, or inspection by the legislative auditor.
G. When a parish correctional facility or the Department of Public Safety and
Corrections receives verification from a federal immigration agency that a detainee
subject to an immigration detainer is in the law enforcement agency's custody, the
agency may securely transport the detainee to a federal facility in this state or to
another point of transfer to federal custody outside of the jurisdiction of the law
enforcement agency. The law enforcement agency may transfer a detainee who is
subject to an immigration detainer and is confined in a secure correctional facility to
the custody of a federal immigration agency not earlier than twelve days before his
release date. A law enforcement agency shall obtain state judicial authorization
before securely transporting the detainee to a point of transfer outside of this state.
H. This Section shall not require a state entity, local governmental entity, or
law enforcement agency to provide a federal immigration agency with information
related to a victim or a witness to a criminal offense if the victim or witness timely
and in good faith responds to the entity's or agency's request for information and
cooperation in the investigation or prosecution of the offense.
I. This Section shall not authorize a law enforcement agency to detain an alien
unlawfully present in the United States pursuant to an immigration detainer solely
because the alien witnessed or reported a crime or was a victim of a criminal offense.
J. This Section shall not apply to any alien unlawfully present in the United
States if the alien is or has been a necessary witness or victim of a state or federal
crime of domestic violence, rape, sexual exploitation, sexual assault, murder,
manslaughter, assault, battery, human trafficking, kidnapping, false imprisonment,
involuntary servitude, fraud in foreign labor contracting, blackmail, extortion, or
witness tampering.

Legislative History

Acts 2024, No. 314, §1, eff. May 28, 2024.