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Confusion persists over $100K fee for H-1B visas In La., universities and hospitals are among biggest program sponsors
BY ALYSE PFEIL | Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS By BRAD KEMP
Confetti flies from the Phi Mu Sorority float during the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Homecoming Parade at Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium in Lafayette on Saturday. University of Louisiana at Lafayette running back Bill Davis runs with the ball against the Southern Miss defense during their Sun Belt Conference football game at Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium in Lafayette on Saturday.
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s homecoming week festivities culminated Saturday with an alumni parade and the homecoming game pitting the Cajuns against the University of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles. The week also featured a food truck roundup, car show and Paint the Town Red competition. While rain threatened early Saturday, the sun came out for tailgating and the 4 p.m. kickoff.
ä SEE
COMPLETE COVERAGE OF THE CAJUNS GAME. PAGE 1C
LETHAL HEAT | Louisiana’s Quiet Disaster
State’s toll of heat deaths likely undercounted Many La. coroners lack standards for classifying fatalities as ‘heat-related’ BY SAM KARLIN | Staff writer Summers in Louisiana are getting hotter and more dangerous, and the number of heat-related deaths in the state in recent years has hit record levels. But whether a death is classified as “heat-related” depends on an inconsistent, vague system: a patchwork of 64 elected coroners, each with their own protocols and standards for investigating deaths.
WEATHER HIGH 81 LOW 69 PAGE 6B
Some coroners say they have no way of tracking heat deaths at all. Others say they don’t have any on record over the past decade. Those with the most training say they go as far as checking liver temperatures to determine whether heat played a role in a death. As a result, the state’s toll is likely inaccurate and undercounted. “You’re not going to find anything that’s standard going on,” said Dr. Todd Thoma, coroner of Caddo Parish. “I hate to say coroners are a ragtag group, but they are. There’s 64 parishes and 64 coroners. Some are better trained, some are less trained.”
ä See HEAT, page 6A
STAFF FILE PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
Ernest Miller uses a cold bottle of water to try to stay cool in New Orleans’ summer heat on Aug. 8, 2023. Summers in Louisiana are getting hotter and more dangerous, and the number of heat-related deaths in the state in recent years has hit record levels.
President Donald Trump last month began charging companies a $100,000 fee for each new application to sponsor a skilled employee from another country to temporarily work in the U.S. on an H-1B visa. The move is aimed at American tech companies who hire foreign workers, which the Trump administration argues have “prominently manipulated the H-1B system, significantly harming American workers in computer-related fields.” But it could also impact Louisiana universities and hospitals that use the H-1B Trump visa program to fill jobs. Trump said the fee will incentivize companies to hire Americans. And his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said businesses must weigh whether the $100,000 fee is worth it. “Either the person is very valuable to the company and America, or they’re going to depart,” Lutnick said. But the new policy has caused confusion since it was rolled out Sept. 19. H-1B visa applicants around the globe, employers and immigration lawyers “were in state of panic” immediately following Trump’s announcement, said Mary Kate Fernandez, a business immigration attorney at Adams & Reese who represents
ä See VISAS, page 4A
Case likely to reshape Voting Rights Act, experts say Whether districts will be redrawn for midterm elections is uncertain
BY MARK BALLARD | Staff writer WASHINGTON — Thinking about how the U.S. Supreme Court will handle the Louisiana case that could reshape the Voting Rights Act, the crowning legislative achievement of the civil rights era, Southern University political science professor Albert Samuels says he can’t help but think back. Out of Louisiana, he noted, came the litigation that helped end Reconstruction laws protecting the formerly enslaved, the “grandfather clause” that kept Blacks from registering to vote and the landmark Plessy case, which enshrined Jim Crow laws limiting African American opportunities. “Ironically, it’s Louisiana at the center of this again,” Samuels said after listening to the 21/2-hour Supreme Court hearing Wednesday over whether the state Legislature — relying on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution when drawing the second Black majority
Business ......................1E Living............................1D Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................3B Lottery ..........................2B Opinion ........................4B Commentary ................5B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
ä See CASE, page 5A
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