LULING, La. — A Facebook post by St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne claims “groups of migrants” have been “dropped off” in the parish. Since he posted it Tuesday, it has been shared more than 300 times, including by Parish President Matt Jewell. It is still unclear, though, where the information came from.
In the post, Sheriff Champagne said he has not “witnessed this [himself]” but has “no reason to believe it isn’t happening,” as it is “happening all over the country.” It goes on to describe Texas leaders’ recent practice of bussing asylum-seekers to large Northern cities. There have not been any confirmed recent reports of those buses coming to the Greater New Orleans area.
WWL Louisiana reached out to Sheriff Champagne Friday. Through a representative, he relayed that he would not discuss the post further. The representative said the “reports” the sheriff had seen were other posts on Facebook. We also asked whether anyone had filed any kind of formal report with the Sheriff’s Office regarding migrants being dropped off and the representative said no.
“It is shocking,” said Leticia Casildo, Executive Director of local immigration advocate group Familias Unidas en Acción. She told WWL Louisiana the large-scale transfer of migrants from the border seen in other states is “not happening in Louisiana in this moment.”
She argued comments like the Sheriff’s sow unnecessary fear, not just among migrants but entire communities. They can also have unintended consequences on businesses that depend on migrant labor, as “when you come and scare people, people are not comfortable going and doing their job,” she said.
Within the same hour, Sheriff Champagne also posted an announcement that a building in James Business Park, an industrial subdivision of St. Rose, is being renovated to house a field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE. The agency arrests, detains, and sometimes deports people accused of violating immigration laws. He said it is not a new office, rather, an existing field office in New Orleans will be moving to the new location.
In the post, Sheriff Champagne described ICE as having “a fairly large footprint in the New Orleans area for a very long time due to our international port and international airport.” He stressed that it will not be “a facility where immigrants seeking asylum will be brought for processing or released on our streets.” He said the office could move in by July.
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