A federal magistrate judge has put Louisiana’s challenge to the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office immigration detainer policy on ice, at least for now, while the state’s highest court weighs in on key legal questions. The move keeps the sheriff’s limits on honoring ICE detainer requests in place as a tangle of state and federal cases moves forward, as reported by Verite News.
Last Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Janis van Meerveld ruled that the heart of the dispute turns on state law, writing that “not one concerns a federal question.” She ordered that three state-law questions be certified to the Louisiana Supreme Court and paused the state’s request to strike down the policy while that court decides whether a 2024 anti-sanctuary statute applies to a 2013 consent judgment. According to Verite News, the court asked whether Act 314 reaches pre-existing settlements, whether it clashes with New Orleans’ home-rule powers, and whether it amounts to an unfunded mandate.
The current OPSO policy grows out of a consent judgment that followed the 2011 Cacho v. Gusman lawsuit. Under the 2013 settlement, the sheriff agreed to sharply curb cooperation with ICE and to stop holding people on detainers except in limited situations. Court records and the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse contain the settlement and the jail policy that came out of it.
In 2024, state lawmakers passed Act 314, a statute aimed at banning so-called sanctuary policies and requiring local law enforcement agencies to comply with immigration detainers and related federal information requests. The full text is posted on the Louisiana Legislature site, and the state contends that Act 314 is the kind of legal change that could trigger the consent judgment’s “change in law” provision.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill moved last year to intervene in the Cacho case, asking the court to dissolve the settlement so local agencies would have to follow the new statute. Local coverage has traced her filing and the broader push to upend OPSO’s policy, describing it as part of a larger shift in how the state approaches immigration enforcement. WDSU
Van Meerveld’s order arrived while related litigation was already in motion. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has sued to obtain documents and interviews from the sheriff’s office using administrative subpoenas, and the state has told the federal court it plans to appeal the magistrate judge’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Verite News reported on both the DHS lawsuit and the state’s intention to seek appellate review.
What Comes Next
The three certified state-law questions headed to the Louisiana Supreme Court will shape whether Act 314 can be read to alter the legal foundation of the 2013 consent judgment. If the state high court says the statute applies, Louisiana officials could ask the federal court to dissolve the settlement entirely. If the justices say it does not, the sheriff’s policy would remain the controlling limit on when deputies honor ICE detainers.
For the moment, deputies at the Orleans Justice Center continue to follow the consent-judgment rules while lawyers argue in multiple courtrooms. Any appeal or state-court ruling is likely months away, leaving the jail, and New Orleans’ role in national immigration enforcement debates, squarely in the middle of a larger fight over state authority, local autonomy and civil-rights protections.
