New Orleans becomes newest target of Trump immigration crackdown
Federal agents have started an immigration enforcement operation in New Orleans, as President Donald Trump’s crackdown expands to Democratic-led cities in red states.
Dubbed Operation Catahoula Crunch by the Department of Homeland Security, the sweep will focus on individuals arrested on charges ranging from home invasion to auto theft who were later freed under the city’s sanctuary policies.
Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokeswoman, said on Wednesday that the releases “endanger American communities by releasing illegal criminal aliens and forcing DHS law enforcement to risk their lives to remove criminal illegal aliens that should have never been put back on the streets.” Federal officials haven’t said how long the operation will continue or how many personnel are involved.
Trump has flagged for months that he was considering sending troops to New Orleans, while Louisiana’s Republican Governor Jeff Landry said this week that he wanted the National Guard deployed to the city by Christmas. Local officials have prepared for the possibility of a wider sweep after operations in Chicago, Los Angeles and Charlotte unfolded with clashes between protesters and agents.
Earlier sweeps in other cities drew scrutiny for detaining significant numbers of immigrants with no criminal history alongside priority targets. Those operations placed officers in grocery store parking lots, commercial corridors and day-labor sites, prompting concerns about due process violations and overly broad enforcement.
New Orleans’ Mexican-born mayor-elect Helena Moreno described the reports as concerning and urged residents to understand the legal protections available to them. She said the city would monitor the operation closely as federal teams move through the city.
The city has for years maintained sanctuary-city policies that restrict cooperation with federal civil immigration enforcement. Officers are prohibited from questioning residents about immigration status during routine interactions and cannot hold people on civil detainers except in limited circumstances. Those limits have intensified friction between city officials and current state leaders pressing for broader enforcement.
Louisiana features prominently in the administration’s enforcement plans. State officials converted a secured unit at the Angola penitentiary into Camp 57, a federal detention site DHS intends to use for immigrants it classifies as high-risk offenders. The move followed months of planning and signaled a deeper federal presence in a state that has sought more aggressive immigration enforcement.
Landry has pressed for that cooperation. In May, he ordered the state’s law enforcement agencies and the Louisiana National Guard to join the federal 287(g) program, which allows ICE to partner with local officers to identify and detain immigrants who are subject to removal. Twenty-three state and local law enforcement agencies in Louisiana now participate in the program.
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