Federal brokers started immigration enforcement operations in metro New Orleans on Wednesday morning, as a part of what the Division of Homeland Safety is now calling Operation Catahoula Crunch (beforehand dubbed Swamp Sweep). Throughout town there have been experiences of brokers gathering, arrests at residence enchancment shops, and closed companies in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods — scenes harking back to current blitzes in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Charlotte, North Carolina.
For some, New Orleans might not appear an apparent subsequent location. Town is residence to solely about 27,000 foreign-born individuals, in accordance with U.S. Census information, effectively beneath Charlotte’s 150,000 and Los Angeles’ 1.5 million. Metro New Orleans is about 10% foreign-born, beneath the nationwide common of 14.3%.
However in Louisiana, the Trump administration finds a novel mixture of current authorized modifications, enforcement-friendly politics and a big immigration detention infrastructure that might make the operation smoother than different efforts. Louisiana can also be the primary location the place this kind of crackdown is happening underneath a state legislation that makes it a criminal offense — even for native officers and police — to intrude with federal legislation enforcement.
Administration officers like prime Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino have typically been coy about how they decide areas, citing “intelligence” and telling reporters they wouldn’t “telegraph potential operations.” For a lot of New Orleans space leaders, the choice appears like a selection made for political theater. President Donald Trump has relished any alternative to flex federal muscle in locales the place his politics are unpopular, and New Orleans is a historic Democratic stronghold.
“What we’re seeing unfold in our neighborhood isn’t public security; it’s a political stunt wrapped in badges, armored autos, and navy uniforms,” U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, a Democrat who represents a lot of the New Orleans metro space, stated in an announcement on Tuesday.
As a matter of timing, the obvious benefit for the administration got here two days earlier than federal immigration brokers started staging for operations in southern Louisiana, when a federal decide formally ended New Orleans’ practically 13-year-old policing consent decree. For many of that point, the court-monitored settlement tightly regulated how the New Orleans Police Division may interact with immigrants, banning officers from asking about immigration standing, compiling data associated to immigration or collaborating in civil immigration enforcement. The consent decree made town a de facto “sanctuary metropolis” in some ways, however by court docket order, relatively than metropolis ordinance as in Chicago and Los Angeles.
In saying the brand new operation on Wednesday, Division of Homeland Safety Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated brokers are focusing on violent criminals who have been launched after arrest as a consequence of “sanctuary insurance policies that drive native authorities to disregard U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest detainers.”
Metropolis police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick has stated that officers is not going to be collaborating in removals, raids or deportations. However she has additionally acknowledged that her division will cooperate with enforcement efforts. “They’re coming, so I’m going to be a associate,” Kirkpatrick stated final month. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the division stated it had no updates on the operation.
It’s not but clear what help federal brokers may request from native police, however generally phrases, such partnerships are important for large-scale enforcement operations. “Rounding up and disappearing as many individuals as attainable is extremely time and labor-intensive, which is why this administration is relying partially on native police and sheriffs to behave as gears in Trump’s deportation machine,” stated Heidi Altman, vice chairman of coverage on the Nationwide Immigration Regulation Middle.
Whereas New Orleans now has fewer authorized obstacles to cooperation, immigration advocates on the bottom say the priorities of native officers will nonetheless form what comes subsequent.
Rachel Taber, an organizer with Unión Migrante, an area immigrant rights advocacy group, stated she was not but conscious of any specific collaborations, like metropolis police asking about immigration standing at site visitors stops. Taber is cautiously optimistic that the division will solely cooperate with federal enforcement to the naked minimal required. “NOPD I don’t imagine has the political will to do ICE’s work, nor the bandwidth, nor the assets, nor the funds,” she stated.
A protest in New Orleans on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, amid experiences of an impending federal immigration operation.
Taber is rather more involved about federal-local cooperation in surrounding parishes, that are extra conservative. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Workplace, in command of the biggest New Orleans suburbs, has an extended historical past of working with federal immigration enforcement. That features honoring the sorts of jail detainer requests that the Orleans Parish sheriff often has not, as a consequence of a 2013 settlement in a civil rights case. Detainers enable native officers to carry individuals in jail for immigration brokers, even with out native legal fees.
Inside Jefferson Parish lies town of Kenner, the place roughly 30% of residents are Hispanic, in accordance with Census information. In March, town grew to become the second of no less than 23 native companies to enter right into a 287(g) settlement with ICE this yr, in accordance with The Occasions-Picayune. These agreements enable ICE-trained native officers to carry out sure immigration processing features whereas reserving somebody into jail, primarily turning routine arrests into potential immigration encounters.
Detainer requests processed by Kenner police have elevated greater than sixfold this yr, in accordance with reporting from Verite and the Gulf States Newsroom. Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley has routinely defended cooperation with immigration enforcement, arguing Wednesday in remarks to The New York Occasions that “the neighborhood, town as a complete, they assist it.” He’s additionally been accused of racial profiling. In November, Conley stated he requested ICE to hitch in a police raid at an area boat launch “as a result of we knew there was going to be a considerable amount of Hispanics on the market.” Neither Kenner police nor the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Workplace responded to a request for remark.
On the state degree, the Trump administration has the full-throated assist of Gov. Jeff Landry and state Lawyer Common Liz Murrill. Each are Republicans. Murrill warned this week {that a} new state legislation may result in arrests for personal residents or public officers who get in the best way of enforcement exercise. That’s as a result of whereas a variety of states have handed pro-enforcement legal guidelines in current months, laws enacted in Louisiana as of Aug. 1 has drawn consideration from authorized observers for the broad scope of its language.
The statute criminalizes any motion that might “hinder, delay, stop, or in any other case intrude with” federal immigration enforcement. It additionally exposes public staff, together with cops, to felony fees of “malfeasance in workplace” utilizing related language.
Alanah Odoms, government director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, warned that the legislation “doesn’t enable anybody to securely and confidently know what they’ll or can not do to run afoul of this legislation and face legal fees.” She famous that the invoice’s personal sponsor acknowledged that offering humanitarian assist to an unauthorized immigrant may even theoretically be criminalized, relying on a district legal professional’s interpretation.
Whereas questions stay about how the revised statute can be used, there’s a a lot older state legislation that might have an effect on enforcement operations, however which nobody expects for use for fees. State legislation bans facial coverings in public, and in principle, the sorts of masks federal brokers have tended to put on throughout operations would violate it. The pre-Civil Rights Period legislation geared toward Ku Klux Klan exercise was recodified in state legislation in 1999. There are carve-outs for Halloween, spiritual and medical coverings — and naturally, for Mardi Gras — however none for legislation enforcement.
To the extent that the Trump administration has defined its rationale for choosing the New Orleans space, crime has been the overwhelming reply. As early as September, Trump stated that he’d ship federal troops to town to type out its “crime downside.”
Traditionally, New Orleans has been one of many extra harmful cities within the nation by virtually any metric, nevertheless it’s within the midst of a dramatic — even historic — lower in its violent crime price. In response to information from the AH Datalytics Actual-Time Crime Index, violent crime in New Orleans has fallen by greater than half since 2022, when rising charges had a lot of town on edge. As of June, there have been fewer murders within the metropolis than in any yr since 1970.
Nevertheless, Murrill, the legal professional common, has argued that town “has seen a excessive variety of violent crimes dedicated by unlawful aliens.” Her workplace didn’t reply to a request for information that may assist this declare. Murrill has often cited the 2024 loss of life of 43-year-old New Orleans tour information Kristie Thibodeaux. One of many three teenagers who pleaded responsible within the case reportedly entered the U.S. illegally in 2019.
Jeff Asher, a New Orleans-based crime analyst and founding father of AH Datalytics, stated that violent crime by undocumented immigrants is “exceedingly uncommon” in New Orleans, whereas acknowledging that this truth doesn’t diminish the tragedy of incidents which have occurred. Asher stated that he “wouldn’t anticipate any growth of immigration enforcement domestically to have a lot — if any — influence on town’s crime charges.”
Analysis additionally routinely reveals that immigrants are not any extra more likely to commit crimes than native-born Individuals. “If the administration’s actions have been actually motivated by considerations over public security, it will respect native management and associate with cities and rural counties experiencing spikes in crime,” stated Nick Wilson, a gun coverage skilled with the progressive suppose tank Middle for American Progress. As a substitute, Wilson stated, “the Trump administration is slicing funding for legislation enforcement, crime intelligence instruments, and confirmed prevention packages which have diminished crime in New Orleans and in cities throughout the nation.”
For the federal authorities, geography eases among the logistics of immigration enforcement. New Orleans sits on the middle of one of many nation’s most expansive immigration detention ecosystems. Louisiana holds extra detainees than any state moreover Texas, and in accordance with the state ACLU, no less than 10 detention amenities are at present working statewide.
That focus of beds may simplify plans in contrast with efforts in locations like Charlotte and Chicago, the place a lot of these arrested wind up being bused or flown tons of of miles to Louisiana or Texas — though many facilities are already at or over capability in accordance with ISLA, an area immigration advocacy legislation middle. New Orleans’ standing as a serious port metropolis offers federal companies a deeper operational footprint than in lots of inland metros. CBP already maintains personnel, autos and processing infrastructure that may be repurposed throughout the blitz.
Authorized geography might matter as effectively. Louisiana falls underneath the jurisdiction of the fifth Circuit Court docket of Appeals, one of the crucial conservative federal appellate courts within the nation and one which has typically proven a excessive degree of deference to state authority in immigration issues.
Nonetheless, regardless of all these distinctive benefits, immigrant rights advocates say they belief within the resolve of the area people to look out for each other. Taber from Unión Migrante stated the group is coaching 1000’s of volunteers each week on how you can safely and legally movie enforcement exercise to create oversight and networks for alerting immigrants about exercise.
“The individuals of New Orleans don’t play,” Taber stated. “We’re good individuals. However we defend our rights.”
