NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Trump administration officials overseeing the immigration crackdown launched this week in New Orleans are aiming to make 5,000 arrests with a focus on violent offenders, a target that some city leaders say is unrealistic.
This ambitious goal would surpass the two-month enforcement blitz this fall around Chicago, a region with a significantly larger immigrant population than New Orleans.
Census Bureau figures reveal that the New Orleans metro area had a foreign-born population of almost 100,000 residents last year, of which nearly 60% were not U.S. citizens. New Orleans City Council President J.P. Morrell voiced skepticism, stating, There is no rational basis for believing that a sweep of New Orleans would yield anywhere near 5,000 criminals considered violent by any definition. He also noted that crime in New Orleans is at historic lows.
A flood of messages about arrests
Federal agents began spreading throughout New Orleans and its suburbs, conducting arrests in various locations, including parking lots of home improvement stores. Activist Alejandra Vasquez, who manages a social media page that tracks the locations of federal agents, reported receiving numerous messages and images since the operation started. My heart is so broken, she expressed. They came here to take criminals and they are taking our working people. They're not doing their jobs; they're taking families.
Several hundred agents from Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have mobilized under the operation dubbed “Catahoula Crunch.”
Support from local political figures like U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson underscores the crackdown's backing among some state Republicans, who criticize Democrats’ sanctuary policies as contributing to insecurity in communities.
Operation is being met with resistance
Protests marked a recent City Council meeting in New Orleans, with demonstrators chanting against the crackdown before being forcibly removed by law enforcement. Planning documents show that the enforcement operation will extend beyond New Orleans into neighboring Mississippi.
Homeland Security officials maintain that they are targeting immigrants released after arrests for violent crimes. The spokesperson for the department claimed that officers arrested violent criminals within just 24 hours of the operation's initiation.
Despite the crackdown being framed as a pursuit of dangerous offenders, immigrant rights activists fear that federal agents will cast their nets wider than intended. There are nowhere near 5,000 violent offenders in our region, stated City Councilmember Lesli Harris, expressing concern over non-violent individuals, including mothers and youth, being swept up in the arrests.
Data from ICE's Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago demonstrated that most arrests did not involve individuals with violent criminal histories. In fact, 85% of those detained were found to lack significant criminal records. Such patterns have raised alarms about potential overreach during the current enforcement efforts in New Orleans.
