BATON ROUGE, LA – Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry today released the following statement after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke out from the White House podium regarding cutting off federal funding to sanctuary cities: 

“I have been warning Louisiana officials that we needed to end Sanctuary Cities in our State. Now, the chickens are coming home to roost. We have an illegal immigration problem across the country and certainly in Louisiana. Unfortunately, New Orleans is part of this problem as the only Sanctuary City in Louisiana.

By refusing to cooperate with ICE, New Orleans is risking not only the security of citizens in our State but also their funding. 

Our office has continuously warned against this happening. I wrote a letter to Mayor Landrieu a year ago alerting him that the New Orleans policy was in violation of federal law. He has ignored my plea and even doubled-down on political hyperbole in opposing President Trump’s efforts on this problem. This is not a time for politics; it is time for leaders to work together to solve this evident public safety issue. And I applaud Attorney General Sessions and the Trump administration for taking the correct steps to order cities to follow federal law.”