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Lafayette’s urban core focus of growth debate STAFF PHOTOS By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Customers shop during the grand opening of Raintree Market Wednesday in Jeanerette. The grocery store is owned and operated by the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana. The store replaces Mac’s Sugar City Market, which was destroyed by fire in 2022.
IN TIME FOR THE
Acadiana business editor
Chitimacha Tribe Chair Melissa Darden. “We could not leave our neighbors in a bind. Mac’s was an anchor of the community due to its location and what it provided. We have a very successful model with our own Raintree Market, and we could fill a need for our neighbors and expand an
ä See STORE, page 8A
ä See GROWTH, page 8A
Chitimacha Tribe opens grocery in Jeanerette, which had been without a store for 3 years BY JOANNA BROWN
Staff writer
Shaundai Poncho, of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, performs a hoop dance during the grand opening of Raintree Market on Wednesday. store. Now, they have an easily accessible grocery again — just in time to prepare holiday meals. The opening ceremony featured tribal and civic leaders, with dancers from the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas showcasing Indigenous culture and providing support to the Chitimacha Tribe and Jeanerette community. “It was a no-brainer,” said
BY ADAM DAIGLE
Just how much of Lafayette is within the urban core? It depends on who you ask. Ben Berthelot, president and CEO of the Lafayette Convention and Visitors Commission, describes it as the area stretching from the Holy Rosary site to the old horse farm that now houses Moncus Park. It’s a 4.7-mile stretch that includes some of the oldest commercial and residential properties in the city. It’s that core, he said, that’s so important to the economy of the city and the region. Lafayette does not have mountains or beaches, but it does have a unique culture. Berthelot “Thank goodness we have culture,” he said. “We have the “... We will best food, music and culture of never reach anywhere in the world, but what our fullest I say is we will never reach our potential fullest potential in tourism unless we have more density in in tourism our downtown and urban core. unless we It’s absolutely a critical piece have more for us.” density The discussion Thursday, put in our on by One Acadiana and held at the Acadiana Center for the downtown Arts, centered around how inand urban vestment and focus on the core core. It’s of Lafayette can help in attractabsolutely ing and keeping young talented a critical people in the city and region. Lafayette Parish is one of the piece for us.” few regions in the state that has BEN grown in population and reportBERTHELOT, ed the biggest increase in the state between July 1, 2023 and president July 1, 2024. and CEO of According to 2023 data, the the Lafayette largest age segment of the popConvention ulation was ages 30-39, which and Visitors made up 16%. That’s higher than Commission both the state and U.S. rates. At the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 82% of its graduates remain in Lafayette a year after graduation, interim president Ramesh Kolluru said. That number drops to 72% after 10 years, he noted. There are several efforts in motion to address
HOLIDAYS
When Mac’s Sugar City Market was destroyed in a fire in the summer of 2022, the city of Jeanerette lost its only grocery store. Jeanerette, a town of 5,000 people situated along the Bayou Teche about 10 miles south of New Iberia, has been a food desert for the past three years. According to city officials and residents, they have had to make do with trips to Dollar General, driving to New Iberia or catching a bus to Raintree Market in Baldwin, courtesy of the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana. The Chitimacha, a federally recognized tribe indigenous to the Atchafalaya Basin and Mississippi River delta region, is now based near Charenton, where they operate a number of enterprises, including the Cypress Bayou Casino and Hotel and Raintree Market. It’s a full-service grocery store that has been open in Baldwin since 2010. On Friday, the tribe opened Raintree Market’s second location in Jeanerette, where Mac’s used to stand at 1001 E. Main St. It’s a convenient spot for the small town, where many residents could previously walk to the
Several efforts in motion to develop, improve area
La. sees surge in immigrants’ lawsuits Some challenge legality of their detentions
BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer
STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
A cellblock is shown in the immigrant detention center at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in September. The number of immigrants challenging their confinement has soared in the state, an ICE detention hub, since Donald Trump took office.
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As President Donald Trump’s administration aggressively pursues its mass deportation campaign, the number of immigrants challenging the legality of their detention at ICE facilities in Louisiana — a state that has become a major detention hub in recent years — has surged. In the roughly 10 months before
Trump took office in January, 23 habeas petitions — a type of lawsuit that claims a person is being illegally detained — were filed in federal courts in the state. Between Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration and Nov. 1, that number soared, with at least 95 Louisiana ICE detainees challenging their detention here, a review of federal court records found. Among the petitioners are a Pakistani man with an American wife and kids who took a wrong turn after visiting Niagara Falls and ended up at the Canadian border, where he was detained; a Ukrainian truck driver who was detained when he made a delivery at a mili-
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tary base in Texas; and a Russian who opposed the war in Ukraine and spent a year and a half in detention while his asylum claim was processed. The lawsuits illustrate how the Trump administration’s push to detain and deport immigrants in record numbers is sweeping up many people who previously would not have been targeted. And critics argue it shows how those efforts are sometimes crossing legal lines. “Any insinuation that the Trump administration is detaining people illegally is another smear peddled by the media,” Tricia McLaughlin,
ä See DETENTIONS, page 4A
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