Feds Descend on New Orleans for Immigration Sweeps in "Catahoula Crunch" Operation

Federal Immigration Operation Launched in New Orleans [00:00]

• Operation Catahoula Crunch, involving over 250 federal immigration agents, aims to make more than 5,000 arrests over two months in New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana.
• Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen stated the operational target is "the worst of the worst," but local officials are skeptical.
• City Council member Leslie Harris noted the lack of 5,000 violent offenders in the region, observing that mothers, teenagers, and workers are being detained during routine check-ins or at their workplaces.
• Agents have been observed targeting parking lots of home improvement stores and construction sites.
• Protesters were removed from a New Orleans City Council hearing for demanding city leaders do more to protect immigrants and calling for ICE-free zones.

"What we're seeing instead are mothers, teenagers, and workers being detained during routine check-ins from their homes and places of work."

Concerns Over Operation's Scope and Tactics [02:13]

• Ometo Lopez, legal director for Isla immigrant services, expressed concern that the stated quota of 5,000 arrests indicates a focus on quantity rather than the stated goal of targeting "the worst of the worst."
• Lopez suggests that racial profiling, as authorized by the Supreme Court, may be part of the operational approach.
• The operation's name, "Catahoula Crunch," replaced an earlier name, "Swamp Sweep."
• While officials claim to target individuals with criminal backgrounds, observations include targeting immigrants broadly, with ICE and CBP officers seen around schools.
• The fear instilled in the community is seen as a true intent of the operation.

"And the fact that they're looking for a specific quota that they have a number that they're going after makes it clear that they're not targeting as they claim the worst of the worst."

Louisiana's Role in Immigration Enforcement and Detention [04:13]

• Louisiana plays an "oversized role" in national immigration enforcement, with former state officials now holding key positions at ICE headquarters.
• The state's approach since 2014, which focused on rapid incarceration and deportation, appears to be replicated at the national level.
• Louisiana has a history of incarceration, being the state with the second-largest detained immigrant population after Texas, despite not being a border state or having a large immigrant population by sheer numbers.
• The state receives many detained individuals from around the country, and its rural, isolated detention centers are far from major population centers.
• This remoteness isolates detainees from their legal and support systems, hindering their ability to fight their cases, as seen in high-profile cases like those of Mahmoud Khalil and Ramses Al-Tukri.

"Instead, what what Louisiana does is it receives a lot of uh people who are detained around the country."

Overturned Consent Decree and Impact on Detentions [07:22]

• A consent decree in place for over a decade, which prevented the local sheriff's office from cooperating with ICE, was overturned last month by the Justice Department.
• This decision leaves it up to the new sheriff whether to cooperate with ICE, removing a safeguard that was implemented due to previous abuses.
• Advocacy groups are working to push the sheriff to maintain a policy of non-cooperation.
• The majority of individuals being arrested are those who are following legal processes, including children applying for special immigrant juvenile status, spouses of U.S. citizens attending interviews, and people with immigration court hearings who have filed applications.
• These individuals are described as "low-hanging fruit" and are being taken from communities, detained, and sent to detention centers for quick deportation.

"The point here is about the values that the city stands for, and what we are going to demonstrate to our to our community and to our residents of who we support, what we support, and what we stand for in the in the city."