New immigrant tracking laws take effect in La.

By Bobbi-Jeanne Misick
Contributing Writer

(Veritenews.org) — Two new Louisiana laws that require some state agencies and higher education systems to collect and share data on undocumented migrants are now in effect – including reporting some applicants for benefits to federal immigration authorities. The enactment of the laws follow moves at the federal level to expand data-collection on applicants for government benefits.

It’s not yet clear when all affected state agencies will begin collecting the information — or how they plan to do it — the new data-collection requirements are raising concerns that immigrant families will be too scared to apply for public benefits, even when they are eligible.

Act 419 – sponsored by Sen. Blake Miguez – R-New Iberia requires service-providing public agencies, including the state Department of Education, Department of Corrections and the Department of Children & Family Services – and all public higher education institutions, to collect data on the immigration status of people who receive those services and report to the state and the public on the cost of undocumented immigrants to those agencies and institutions.

Act 351 – sponsored by Rep. Chance Henry, R-Crowley – requires state agencies that provide public assistance, such as food stamps or Medicaid, to collect and report the personal information of people who apply for benefits, and are found ineligible, to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Act 419 took effect in late June. Act 351 became effective at the beginning of this month.

“From the moment they have our addresses, the fear starts to grow,” said the undocumented Metairie mother, pictured August 18, 2025, about the state’s new immigration laws
Photo by Christiana Botic/Verite News and Catchlight Local/Report for America

Prior to the passage of the laws, undocumented immigrants were already barred from receiving many public benefits, such as Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. But immigrant parents, regardless of status, can apply for those benefits for their U.S. citizen children. However, as the heads of household, those parents must include information about themselves, including their immigration statuses and earnings.

“The most difficult [situation] for an immigrant is when you go to an agency to seek services, not for ourselves, but our U.S. citizen children. We are the head of the family, so they have all of our information,” said one Metairie mother, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras whose son is a U.S. citizen. “From the moment they have our addresses, the fear starts to grow.” (She asked that her name not be published because she fears she will be targeted by U.S. immigration authorities if she were to be identified.)

Her school-aged son receives both SNAP and Medicaid. Speaking through an interpreter, the woman said he has complications with his heart that require him to be seen by a cardiologist every six months. She said she was relieved when his Medicaid benefits were automatically renewed in June.

If her son were to lose his health insurance, “it would be a massive impact, especially since we’re immigrants and we can’t get other public benefits,” she said.

The legislation is in line with a broadera conservative push, at both the state and federal levels, to crackdown on undocumented immigrants, who conservatives describe as being a financial drain on the country’s public services, including education and healthcare.

In late July, the U.S. Department of Agriculture began gathering state level data on SNAP recipients and applicants dating back to January 1, 2020. The data requested includes information about members of the recipients’ households, including social security numbers – which undocumented immigrants can’t obtain. Earlier that month, the Trump administration secured an information sharing agreement between the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, granting ICE access to millions of Medicaid recipients’ records to aid in the agency’s efforts to locate immigrants.

Act 419 – the bill that requires agencies to track benefit applicants – is essentially a replica of an executive order Gov. Jeff Landry, an immigration hardliner and Trump ally, issued last year near the beginning of his term. That order not only targets benefits that undocumented immigrants are barred from accessing but state services that have long been universally available, regardless of status, such as a free K-12 public education.

Julie Norman, a social worker and co-founder of Girasol, a nonprofit that provides legal and social work services to immigrant families, said she feels like the new federal and state reporting efforts are meant to scare immigrant families, including ones with members who are U.S. citizens, so that they don’t access resources that are available to them.

“My fear is that so much of this is to terrify people into hiding, and to like create an environment in which a lot of immigrants don’t feel they can send their kids to school [or] don’t get food stamps or Medicaid for their U.S. citizen children, and yet are still being relied upon for their labor and to keep the economy going,” Norman said.

Landry’s office did not respond to requests for comment on this story, nor did Miguez or Henry, the bills’ sponsors in the legislature.

Implementation
It appears to be unclear how some state agencies will implement mandates of the new laws. Act 419 applies to several agencies, including the Departments of Health, Education, Children and Family Services and Corrections.

A provision in Act 419 states that “implementation … shall be subject to the appropriation of funds by the legislature.” The state budget for this year does not include specific earmarks for implementation of the bills, but that would not necessarily be required if the agencies have enough money in their budgets to follow the new laws.

A representative from the Department of Health did not respond to multiple requests for clarity on how the new laws would be implemented in that agency.

In an email, Amy Whitehead, a representative for the Department of Children and Family Services, which administers SNAP, said the agency will meet the requirements of the new laws. However, Whitehead did not elaborate on how those requirements would be implemented, despite being asked.

As for state colleges and universities, Ryleigh Kühn, communications specialist at the Louisiana Board of Regents, said the board spoke with schools about Act 419’s requirements “during the legislative process,” but did not provide any information on implementation.

Chandler LeBoeuf, vice president of education for the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, said the school system is “working to comply with the provisions” of the new law.

“As with any newly enacted legislation, we are reviewing internal systems and coordinating closely with the appropriate agencies to ensure full alignment and adherence to the law,” LeBoeuf said in an emailed statement.

Primary and secondary education remains a question.

In a July email, Department of Education spokesman Ted Beasley said the department is “still in the process of making final determinations on [the bills’] anticipated impact.” Beasley has neither provided an update, nor responded to requests regarding how data will be collected for K-12 students.

Individual students’ citizenship or immigration information is protected from disclosure under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. However, schools report aggregate data about their student population to the U.S. Department of Education, schools already must share aggregate data, including information about immigration statuses, with the federal government to meet certain funding requirements.

Identifying and reporting undocumented public school students appeared to be a priority to Landry in his 2024 executive order.

“Congressional reporting estimates that at least 3.8 million illegal alien children at primary and secondary schools in the United States qualify as Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students, costing American taxpayers nearly $59 billion,” the order reads. “Those illegal alien children who entered in 2022 alone represent a $7 billion burden on public education budgets. Louisiana spends more than $10,000 per student at public primary and secondary schools.

In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Plyler v. Doe that states can’t deny free public education to undocumented children. But at least one prominent conservative group hopes that tracking laws, like Act 419 in Louisiana, will lead to that decision being overturned.

A February 2024 brief issued by the Heritage Foundation – the think tank behind Project 2025 – recommended that states “require school districts to collect enrollment data by immigration status as part of their regular enrollment counts” to better calculate the costs associated with educating undocumented students. and to make the data public.

“Such legislation would draw a lawsuit from the Left, which would likely lead the Supreme Court to reconsider its ill-considered Plyler v. Doe decision that had no basis in law,” the Heritage Foundation brief said.

A representative from the Heritage Foundation declined to comment on the new state laws.

Immigrant fears
The undocumented Metairie mother said she felt comfortable applying for benefits for her son when President Joe Biden was in office. She applied to renew his SNAP benefits in January before Trump’s inauguration and he was approved.

She said she’s required to submit new documentation showing that his household’s circumstances remain unchanged, but she’s uncomfortable submitting the information now that SNAP officials can report directly to ICE under Act 351.

She said she’s concerned that agencies may not limit information-sharing to applicants, sharing undocumented members of mixed status households details as well.

She said she tries to encourage other immigrants she knows to stay calm and remind them of their rights, but as federal and state governments pressure on immigration intensifies, migrant families are stepping deeper into the shadows of society out of fear.

“There are so many families that are confined and isolated. They only leave home to buy food,” she said. “It’s affecting our kids so much – being shut in like this – they don’t feel safe being out with their parents.”

This article originally published in the August 25, 2025 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.