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The Times-Picayune 08-08-2026

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NFL HALL OF FAME: BIG DAY IS HERE FOR DREW BREES 1C

HALL OF FAMER DREW BREES

N O L A.C O M

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S at u r d ay, au g u S t 8, 2026

PRESENTED By

$2.00X

‘U visa’ probe rooted in La. widens Agents in 20 cities tracking down 800 applicants BY JAMES FINN Staff writer

Two years ago, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials started to notice a strange phenomenon along a central Louisiana roadway: A section of La. 165 seemed to have become one of the most violent sectors in the country. Triggering their concern was a yearslong wave of applications

for special “U visas,” which the government grants immigrant crime victims who help police investigations. The applications all contained police reports describing hundreds of violent robberies along La. 165 near Oakdale, population 6,500. “You’d think people would notice and wonder, ‘What the heck is going on in Oakdale?’ ” said Adam Parks, a senior U.S. Homeland

Security Investigations agent who is involved in the probe. “It looked like the most violent place in the world.” The sleepy area was hardly the hub of lawlessness conjured by the visa applications. Federal prosecutors last summer secured 62 criminal counts against an Oakdale businessman and four local lawmen, charging them with a yearslong kickback and bribery scheme that

produced the flow of fabricated reports later used on U visas applications. Now, officials say the probe has widened into a nationwide search for hundreds of immigrants accused of paying to obtain the fraudulent reports and later submitting them with visa applications to the federal government. Homeland Security agents in more than 20 U.S. cities are tracking down about 800 applicants who filed the reports, according to estimates from investigators — a

City struggling to keep up with cutting overgrown lots

staggering figure that has not been previously reported. The new focus significantly widens an investigation that unfolded as President Donald Trump’s administration launched its crackdown on illegal immigration. The administration has focused largely on apprehending entrants at the southern border and deporting people here without authorization, including those have sought residency through formal avenues.

ä See PROBE, page 6A

Rules for Meta’s power needs debated La. leaders seek to balance household costs, data centers

BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer

cials in the past have mowed down some lots that prove to be an eyesore or threat to public safety. But the city often struggles to recoup funds it spends on the lots from those property owners. And because of the city’s budget crisis, city crews have not cut some lots in over nine months, officials said at a recent City Council committee meeting. The director of the code enforcement department said the department is waiting on the council to approve a $100,000 contract with a grass cutter. The state agreed to grant the city $100,000 for grass

A pledge by tech companies. An executive order. A state law. Stricter contracts between utility companies and industrial users. As Meta sets out to build one of the world’s largest data centers in north Louisiana, a project known as Hyperion, political leaders all say they want to protect household customers from paying for the power needed for that project and others like it. But there is political wrangling over the best way to achieve that goal. The tension centers around how to protect ratepayers while also ensuring the state stays attractive to Meta and other large investors. In Louisiana, which has some of the most affordable electricity in the country, the Public Service Commission is responsible for regulating electric rates and greenlighting Entergy’s proposals to build and acquire new infrastructure needed for industrial projects such as data centers. Backers of the Hyperion project, including Meta, Entergy and some public officials, have been adamant that ratepayers will be protected, and that Meta’s investment

ä See CUTTING, page 4A

ä See META, page 5A

Vanessa Ross looks over the overgrown lot beside her mother’s home in New Orleans East on Friday.

Residents are crying foul over delays

the street. “It’s like, oh my God, way above the house,” she said. “There might be snakes!” Ross’ emails to the city’s Department BY VIOLET BUCARO of Code Enforcement and to City Council Staff writer members haven’t been enough, she said. Vanessa Ross, 70, said she worries that a So she took to livestreaming the lot on her giant tree limb from a nearby overgrown Facebook page. Ross is one of many New Orleans lot will crush into her 90-year-old mothresidents who have watched abandoned er’s home soon. The New Orleans East resident said lots grow out of control with weeds and she’s watched grass and weeds grow 6 shrubbery and who believe the city has feet tall next to her childhood home on not been doing enough to address the Longfellow Drive since Hurricane Ka- problem. Though it’s ultimately a proptrina. The overgrowth has swallowed the erty owner’s responsibility to ensure land sidewalk, and it forces people to walk into meets city codes, code enforcement offi-

STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER

Harris barnstorms New Orleans Former vice president talks voting rights

BY BLAKE PATERSON and MARIE FAZIO

Staff writers

Former Vice President Kamala Harris barnstormed New Orleans on Friday, giving a pep talk to students at a back-to-school rally in the morning before delivering remarks at a fundraising gala for the Louisiana Democratic Party in the

WEATHER HIGH 91 LOW 77 PAGE 6A

evening. The trip by the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, who is mulling another run in 2028, was one of several in recent years to New Orleans. It began with an appearance at the Mahalia Jackson Theater, where she doled out advice to hundreds of Inspire NOLA charter school students as they gathered to kick off the school year. She urged the youngsters, many of whom aren’t old enough to vote, to tell the adults in their lives to make their voices heard at the bal-

lot box in the midterms. “Your future relies on them voting in November,” Harris said. Harris told students she plans to spend the next few months touring the South to highlight the importance of voting rights in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Callais decision earlier this year. That ruling weakened the Voting Rights Act and paved the way for Republicans in Louisiana and elsewhere to redraw congressional maps to

Mayor Helena Moreno claps as former Vice President Kamala Harris takes the stage at a backto-school rally for InspireNOLA on Friday. STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

ä See HARRIS, page 4A

Business ......................5B Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................6B Classified .....................5D Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C Comics-Puzzles .....1D-4D Nation-World................2A

13TH yEAR, NO. 361


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