The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Is Detaining People for ICE

The Louisiana Department Of Wildlife And Fisheries (LDWF), typically liable successful portion for overseeing wildlife reserves and enforcing section hunting rules, has assisted United States migration authorities with bringing astatine slightest six radical into national custody this year, according to documents WIRED obtained via a nationalist grounds request.

According to the documents, LDWF signed a memorandum of statement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) successful May, which gives the wildlife bureau the authorization to detain radical suspected of migration violations and to transportation them into ICE custody. Since then, astatine slightest six men entered ICE custody aft coming into interaction with oregon being detained by LDWF officers. None of the men were issued transgression charges astatine the clip they came into interaction with LDWF officers, the documents show. Two of the men were known by ICE to person been successful the state legally astatine the clip the bureau took them into custody.

The documents besides bespeak that astatine slightest 1 “joint patrol” took spot successful a Louisiana wildlife absorption country successful which LDWF agents were accompanied by officers with Customs and Border Protection and the US Coast Guard. The memorandum of statement betwixt ICE and LDWF makes nary notation of CBP oregon the anticipation of moving with the bureau arsenic portion of the agreement. However, the documents bespeak that a narration with CBP whitethorn person been facilitated done LDWF’s concern with ICE.

LDWF partnered with ICE nether the agency’s 287(g) program, named aft the conception of the Immigration and Nationality Act that enables officers and employees astatine the authorities oregon section level to execute immoderate of the functions of US migration officers, specified arsenic investigating, apprehending, detaining, oregon transporting radical suspected of violating migration law.

As of December 3, precisely 1,205 agencies person partnered with ICE done the 287(g) program. (An further 8 agencies are presently pending support from ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.) Some 1,053 of these agreements were signed this year, meaning enrollment has accrued by 693 percent compared to the extremity of 2024. The LDWF is 1 of conscionable 3 authorities wildlife agencies—the others being the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources—that person signed 287(g) agreements with ICE, according to nationalist ICE records. All 3 agreements were signed this year.

The marked enlargement of the 287(g) programme this twelvemonth has generated comparatively small attention. However, the documents from the LDWF bespeak that the authorities and section agencies enrolled are actively detaining radical not blameworthy of immoderate crimes, and facilitating their arrests and imaginable deportation.

CBP did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment. The LDWF answered questions astir 1 peculiar incident, but did not respond to WIRED’s implicit petition for comment. ICE spokesperson Angelina Vicknair—when fixed the men’s afloat names, the dates and locations they were detained, each known circumstances of their detainment, and each different identifying accusation included successful the documents—said that the bureau did not person capable accusation to find if the men were successful custody, released, oregon deported. She besides said that the fig of men WIRED asked about, seven, constituted “too ample a query,” adding, “We’ll request you to constrictive it down.”

Per a LDWF “After Action Report” obtained by WIRED, 3 men were taken into a national custody aft the bureau conducted a associated patrol connected August 11 with 5 US Coast Guard officers and an chartless fig of CBP agents successful Lake Borgne, which is successful Louisiana’s sprawling Biloxi Marsh Complex. According to the report, the officers were looking for radical allegedly violating authorities statues for effect oyster harvesting.