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T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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M o n d ay, J u n e 30, 2025
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La. changing illegal immigration laws Enforcement bolstered, state benefits end
country illegally are set to take effect after winning easy passage by the Legislature’s Republican supermajorities and swift signatures from Gov. Jeff Landry. Five bills approved this spring tamp down the state’s ability to provide services to immigrants BY ALYSE PFEIL | Staff writer without legal status, mandate coNew Louisiana laws aimed at operation with U.S. Immigration bolstering federal immigration and Customs Enforcement and enforcement and ending state ben- other federal agencies, and allow efits for immigrants living in the for criminal penalties for govern-
Police in state allowed to bring down drones
ment workers and others who interfere with immigration enforcement. Though some Democrats from urban areas questioned the impact of the new rules, Republican state lawmakers faced little friction in passing the new restrictions. And they did so against the backdrop of an intensifying ramp-up of federal immigration detention and deportation, one of President Donald Trump’s campaign promises.
Tia Fields, communications and policy advocacy associate for the Louisiana Organization for Refugees and Immigrants, said the package of Republican legislation mimics national political trends, and it furthers “harmful rhetoric” that is causing national division. She argues the new laws fail to acknowledge immigrants’ humanity and societal and economic contributions. Fields said that the number of
noncitizens applying for state and local benefits is nearly “nonexistent” because they don’t qualify, for the most part. But in cases where parents may not qualify for benefits but their U.S.-born children do, the new laws will deter some from applying out of fear of deportation and could “break families apart,” she said.
ä See LAWS, page 3A
Spotty internet an ordeal in Louisiana’s rural areas Federal program promising fast network falters
‘We Will Act’ law seeks to mitigate threats in the sky
BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN | Staff writer As sheriff of East Feliciana Parish, Jeff Travis sometimes gets complaints about unidentified drones. “Oftentimes, these drones come over, and you never know who it was or what it was,” he said. “That’s a problem — that’s a big problem.” That’s why Travis praised a new state law, championed by Gov. Jeff Landry, that gives local and state law enforcement the power to take down drones. “The governor was right. He’s right about the fact that we need to be able to do something about it,” Travis said. House Bill 261, now Act 170, was sponsored by state Rep. Jay Gallé, RMandeville. Gallé chairs the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. Act 170, also called the “We Will Act” Act, allows “a law enforcement officer or agency” to “take reasonable and necessary mitigation measures against a Gallé threat posed by an unmanned aircraft system operating within this state in a nefarious manner.” Such action could include detection, tracking and identification methods, or it could involve “the interception or disabling of an unmanned aircraft system through legal and safe methods, including but not limited to jamming, hacking, or physical capture,” the act says. The new law also bans drones from being flown over parades, unless they are being used for film production. Violating that rule would carry a fine of between $2,000 and $5,000, or a prison sentence of up to one year. Gallé said the parade rule was added to the law out of concerns that parades could be targeted for mass casualty events. In Louisiana, it was already illegal
STAFF FILE PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
The residents of Lake Providence, an East Carroll Parish town of 3,600, have been for years pushing for faster, more reliable internet service — the kind that comes via fiber-optic cables. BY JENNA ROSS | Staff writer EAST CARROLL PARISH — When the internet is iffy in Lake Providence, as it often is, Brittany Lyons, the owner of an inhome care service, has a backup. She drives a half mile to the hospital where her sister works and asks to use their network, which is a bit more reliable. At the local U-Haul rental outlet, manager Kyla Richardson is used to pulling out her smartphone to help customers when the store’s internet falters. To STAFF PHOTO By JENNA ROSS host a recent training session, the disWanda Manning, a retired teacher, has trict attorney’s office borrowed a perbeen pushing for broadband in Lake sonal Wi-Fi hot spot from the library. Glenn Dixon, an investigator with Providence. As program director for the the District Attorney’s office, flipped Together for Hope House she organizes through a paper calendar earlier this drives for diapers and school supplies. month, shaking his head. The office manager scrawls “No internet,” on days that their line-of-sight wireless service 2024: out for five. “Storm,” she wrote in August 2024. is down. May 2024: Out for three days. June Out for 10.
“We can’t go paperless like many offices are doing now,” Dixon said, his desk covered in folders, loose sheets and sticky notes. “We just can’t.” For years, residents of this town of 3,600 have pushed for faster, more reliable service — the kind that comes via fiber-optic cables. The kind that residents in most U.S. cities and suburbs take for granted. They were set to get it. But a project that would have extended fiber across town was canceled after the Trump administration announced new rules this month for a national $42 billion broadband build-out passed under the previous administration. Republican lawmakers have long criticized the slow rollout of the bipartisan Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program, known as BEAD, created under the Biden administration in 2021. This month’s sweeping changes rid the program of unnecessary mandates,
ä See INTERNET, page 5A
ä See DRONES, page 3A
Robert ‘Bob’ Neilson was appointed by the state to run the Washington Parish city and fix Bogalusa’s financial problems after Mayor Tyrin Truong was arrested. STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
WEATHER HIGH 91 LOW 74 PAGE 6B
‘I have the ultimate authority in town’
of Robert “Bob” Neilson, an over $150,000 in contracted emerBogalusa accountant fices accountant who may have more gency sewer repairs. He’s hired than Mayor Tyrin Truong staff from the previous mayor’s takes on city overhaul power or the City Council combined. administration. And he has fired
BY WILLIE SWETT | Staff writer
Since being appointed by the 10 or 12 city employees — he state in February to oversee Bo- didn’t have the specific number. “I have the ultimate authority Across from Bogalusa City Hall galusa’s troubled finances, Neilon Arkansas Avenue, behind a son has rapidly overhauled city in town,” Neilson said, looking up white picket fence, up three steps government from inside the walls ä See BOGALUSA, page 4A and through a side door are the of- of his accounting firm. He’s spent
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100TH yEAR, NO. 365