Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry has subpoenaed three local immigrant rights organizations and ordered them to release confidential information about their clients.
Landry has issued subpoenas to these organizations in what they describe as a minor effort to support his legal ability to bring legal claims to challenge the Biden administration’s immigration policies in the Arizona federal lawsuit v. Garland.
In a motion filed in federal court earlier this week, Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention, Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy and Home is Here NOLA sought the vacating of the subpoena.
These local organizations provide various types of mutual aid, legal assistance and other support systems to immigrant detainees, as well as those returning to the community from detention and those facing deportation proceedings. Disclosing the requested information could be detrimental to the organizations, their customers, and the broader community they nurture.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry has subpoenaed three local immigrant rights organizations
“We were shocked when we received the subpoenas because we are not parties to the lawsuit or the administration, so to us, especially as a legal services organization asking us for confidential information that identifies our clients and their status is false,” said Homero López, Legal Director of ISLA.
The organizations’ work, they say, depends on the trust of immigrant communities, and a cornerstone of that trust is confidentiality, as many of their clients are in highly vulnerable states, having fled persecution, endured detention and protection from a legal status have searched.
Sharing information the organizations have vowed to keep secret would damage their credibility and undermine their ability to function, as well as jeopardize basic federal rights and privileges that protect communications between attorneys and clients.
Landry is requesting these subpoenas based on his allegation that Louisiana has incurred increased costs due to an increase in immigration. The organizations say the records and information he claims are relevant to this claim are not information that those organizations have and is already in the government’s possession. According to the groups, Landry is seeking sensitive information irrelevant to the case, like the identities of his clients.
The story goes on
According to ISLA’s legal director, there is no reason why the organizations should be part of this lawsuit, as they argued in a brief from the attorney general’s office that the federal government already has the requested information. “So why are you asking us? You’re not just asking for statistics, you’re identifying information about these people. He shouldn’t be asking us to do that, and there’s no reason we should be involved,” López says.
A judge will hear both sides in a hearing scheduled for April 4.
This article originally appeared in the Lafayette Daily Advertiser: The Louisiana Attorney General Subpoenaed Immigrant Rights Organizations
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