The New Orleans Police Department changed a decade-long policy to allow more cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

For a decade, NOPD policy barred officers from complying with immigration detainers. The policy had drawn accusations by Republicans that New Orleans was a “sanctuary city.” The new NOPD policy requires officers to remand people with “detainers” to ICE if local jails won’t hold them.

M. Isabel Medina, a professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, explained what a detainer is in law enforcement.

“The detainer is something that usually ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, issues to a state or county… asking them to detain a noncitizen that is in their custody,” Medina said.

In December, Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill wrote a letter to Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick urging her to change the policy.

“I look forward to working with you and NOPD to ensure its policies and actions comply with state law,” Murrill said. “At this time, I recommend that you immediately direct NOPD officers and staff to fully cooperate with ICE and [Customs and Border Protection].”

Medina believes this new policy might change the relationship between immigrant communities and the NOPD. 

“The problem with these policies is that they impair the ability of police to actually [stop] crime,” Medina said. “You want communities that are willing to interact with the police, that are willing to report to the police, that are not actively hiding from the police… These are policies that could affect the willingness to report crimes.”

New Orleans mayor Helena Moreno defended the NOPD’s decision, saying that the policy change stems from an effort to comply with state law. 

“Because of the state law change… the attorney general wanted to ensure that the NOPD was following law by reflecting that in their policies,” Moreno said.

However, Moreno also said that the NOPD “will never sign a cooperative agreement to join in on immigration enforcement.”