County Fight Active-Litigation

Orleans Parish — Sheriff Hutson vs. ICE (Sanctuary Policy Legal Battle)

Orleans, LA FIPS 22071

Overview

Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson is the only meaningful institutional resistance to ICE’s detention infrastructure in Louisiana. The Sheriff’s Office maintains a longstanding immigration policy, established through a 2011 settlement in Cacho v. Gusman, that:

Prohibits deputies from investigating detainees’ immigration status
Blocks honoring most ICE detainer requests
Prohibits sharing certain information about detainees with ICE

Timeline

2011: Cacho v. Gusman consent decree establishes Orleans Parish immigration policy
July 2025: Sheriff Hutson announces she will maintain immigration policy despite new state law banning “sanctuary policies”
Oct 2025 – Jan 2026: ICE issues 20 administrative subpoenas to OPSO demanding interviews with or documents about migrants booked in the jail
February 2026: DHS sues Sheriff Hutson seeking judicial order to force compliance with subpoenas
February 2026: Federal judge halts Louisiana’s state-level challenge, ruling it’s a state law question for the Louisiana Supreme Court
March 2026: Court hearing on ICE vs. OPSO data-sharing demand
April 10, 2026: Immigration advocacy groups ask to join the lawsuit in support of the Sheriff’s Office

Why It Matters

Orleans Parish is the test case for whether consent decrees from prior civil rights litigation can shield local law enforcement from federal immigration enforcement demands. ICE’s administrative subpoenas are not issued by a judge and are not legally enforceable without a court order — which is exactly what ICE is seeking here.

The fight also reveals the tension between state and federal power: Governor Landry passed a state law banning sanctuary policies, but a federal judge ruled that whether it overrides the pre-existing consent decree is a state law question.

Sources

This research is published at The RAMM — investigative reporting on the detention pipeline.

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