BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana senators halted a bid to penalize so-called "sanctuary cities" that don't enforce federal immigration law, after two days of testy debate and late moves to rewrite the bill to salvage it.
A Senate judiciary panel voted 2-2 Tuesday against the House-approved bill targeting such communities, with the tie vote stalling it in committee.
The proposal says municipalities that don't enforce immigration law without a court order could not get public funding for construction projects.
Attorney General Jeff Landry pushed the measure, which would have authorized him to determine which municipalities were violators. The committee rewrote the bill to give that discretion to courts.
But the measure still faced opposition.
Local law enforcement officials objected to the bill, saying immigration enforcement rests with federal officials. They said the proposal was built on an invented and unfair term.
The proposed bill could have seriously penalized cities like New Orleans, which Landry says operates under "sanctuary city" policies. That's because of a federal consent decree that says city police "shall not initiate an investigation or take law enforcement action" based on perceived immigration status, among other guidelines. Landry didn't attend Tuesday's hearing.
New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison said his officers act appropriately.
"Let me be really clear: Any person in the city of New Orleans who commits a crime will be held accountable by our criminal justice system regardless of their immigration status," Harrison said.
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said the bill addressed "a Washington problem that begs of a Washington solution."
Law enforcement officials agreed that the bill would create significant costs for already cash-strapped departments to train local officials to carry out federal mandates.
The bill's author, Rep. Valarie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, countered that the proposed law was more important.
"I think the greater cost is to the children who are being raped and murdered" by people living in the United States without legal documentation, she said.
The bill's opponents said immigration policy debates are better suited for Washington. For Landry, though, the bill's failure highlighted the governor's "D.C.-style politics."
"I am extremely disappointed that the Governor and politicians who are aligned with him chose to confer criminal illegals more rights than their constituents, the citizens of Louisiana, enjoy," he said in a statement.
Edwards' office said the governor didn't actively work to defeat the bill. The governor issued a statement responding to Landry's criticism, saying "the objections to the Attorney General's bill were widespread and crossed party lines."
Republican senators voted on both sides of the measure.
Voting against advancing the bill were Sens. Danny Martiny, R-Kenner, and Wesley Bishop, D-New Orleans.
Voting for the measure were Sens. Ryan Gatti, R-Bossier City, and Rick Ward, R-Port Allen.
Sen. Jack Donahue, R-Mandeville, could have broken the tie to send the proposal to full Senate debate. But he left the committee and did not vote after his changes to the bill were rejected.