In the News

Louisiana representatives in the U.S. House split 4-1 along party lines on a bill to expand the federal government's authority to deport or detain immigrants who are suspected of gang activity and, according to critics, to promote racial profiling and erode due process. The bill passed the House 233-175 on Thursday (Sept. 14) and heads to the Senate, where it is given little chance of success against a Democratic filibuster.

The Criminal Alien Gang Member Removal Act, sponsored by Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., would let officials take action against suspected gang members regardless of whether they've been convicted of a crime, The Washington Post reported. President Donald Trump supports it, the White House said.

Proponents highlighted violence by the MS-13, a gang founded in Los Angeles in the 1980s by immigrants from El Salvador. "We know MS-13 has 10,000 members acting within the United States. Without our intervention, their criminal enterprise will continue to spread like a cancer across our communities," said Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Bossier City.

"Their violence continues to cause chaos across America, yet current immigration law includes a number of dangerous loopholes that allow these violent, criminal aliens to escape justice and remain in the U.S," Johnson said. "Rather than prohibiting our law enforcement officers from identifying and removing gang members until after a crime has occurred, this legislation ensures alien gang members are subject to removal proceedings on the grounds of that membership."

Opponents said the legislation unfairly targets foreigners and U.S. citizens who help them. "The bill broadly overreaches and puts Americans and immigrants at risk of being unjustly profiled," Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, was quoted by The Hill as saying. "The sweeping discretion given to enforcement officials is so dangerously broad," she said, "it would classify nuns who assist undocumented immigrants as gang members."

Louisianan representatives joining Johnson in voting for the bill were Ralph Abraham, R-Mangham; Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge; and Clay Higgins, R-Port Barre. Voting against it was Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, who is recovering from a June 14 gunshot wound, did not vote.