Federal agents prepare to launch immigration crackdown in New Orleans

Federal agents are preparing to descend on New Orleans on Wednesday, making Louisiana’s most populous city the latest front in the Trump administration’s sweeping crackdown on immigrant communities.

Tricia McLaughlin, homeland security department assistant secretary, said in a statement that the aim of “Operation Catahoula Crunch” was to capture immigrants who were released after their arrests for crimes including home invasion, armed robbery, grand theft auto and rape. “It is asinine that these monsters were released back onto New Orleans streets to COMMIT MORE CRIMES and create more victims,” she said.

It is unclear how long the crackdown would last but it is reportedly targeting 5,000 arrests. The Democrat-led city has been bracing for weeks for the arrival of federal agents, with rumors swirling of a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) crackdown led by border patrol initially referred to as “Swamp Sweep”.

Community organizers have been urging residents to stay inside as much as possible and educating the public about what to do if confronted by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and how to legally film them. Some businesses have told their workers to stay home or have reported workers staying home out of fear. Some have signs posted on their doors telling ICE they are not welcome, while others are handing out whistles to members of the public.

Some businesses have closed their doors since 1 December, several of which are located in the suburb of Kenner, home to Louisiana’s largest Hispanic population. Local law enforcement agencies in Kenner and in Gretna have been assisting in immigration efforts, with four people detained last week. In that arrest, agents demanded a 25ft buffer from someone filming their actions, citing a blocked law that was ruled as unconstitutional by a judge this year.

Taqueria Guerrero in the Mid-City neighborhood said on social media on Monday that it had made the “painful” decision to close for the foreseeable future. “The safety, dignity, and peace of mind of our staff and our community mean more to us than anything,” the post reads. “We refuse to operate in a way that puts anyone at risk or adds to the fear that so many are already feeling.

“Thank you for standing with us. Thank you for standing with each other,” the post told patrons.

The city’s mayor-elect, Helena Moreno, told CNN that people were “incredibly fearful” of what was coming and that she was very concerned about racial profiling. “What they’re seeing on TV and reports … is not that border patrol is going after the most violent criminals,” she said. “What they’re seeing is what appears to be racial profiling of brown people and then going after these individuals and treating them like they are these significantly violent offenders.”

Moreno, who is Mexican-American, went on: “I know that I don’t look Latina, but my father very much does. And my father speaks with an accent, so … that was very personal to me.” She has previously expressed concerns about due process, and has for the last few weeks been urging residents to understand their rights and calling on legal experts to volunteer their services.

Braving the rain and cold on Tuesday night, protesters were out marching in the streets of downtown New Orleans against the impending federal arrival, chanting: “No ICE, no fear – immigrants are welcome here.”

Previous federal operations in Los Angeles, Chicago and Charlotte were led by the border patrol and Gregory Bovino, and have been criticized for using extreme force against protesters and mostly sweeping up people with no criminal records. In those cities agents flooded work sites and parking lots, for example at Home Depots, looking for undocumented migrants, and sometimes violently detained US citizens.

During “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago, agents’ deployed teargas and pepper balls at protesters and journalists in targeted attacks, and videos of ICE agents throwing protesters to the ground went viral.

Despite the Trump administration’s repeated insistence that it was pursuing “the worst of the worst” among people lacking legal status in these crackdowns, most of the people detained in those past operations have not had criminal histories. In “Operation Charlotte’s Web” in Charlotte, North Carolina, fewer than 12% of those arrested were classified as criminals. In Chicago, more than 97% of immigrants detained in “Midway Blitz” had no criminal conviction.

The Guardian has also previously reported that immigrants with no criminal record are now the largest group in US immigration detention, according to government data. Research has also consistently shown that immigrants – including undocumented immigrants – are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States.

And despite violent crime in New Orleans, including homicide, plummeting to record lows, Louisiana’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry – a staunch Trump ally – has welcomed the deployment of federal law enforcement in the city, telling Fox News last month that he hoped they could start “taking some of these dangerous criminal illegal aliens off of our streets”.

The New Orleans police department’s superintendent, Anne Kirkpatrick, has previously said she did not plan to assist immigration enforcement, deeming it a civil not a criminal issue. But the FBI New Orleans field office and Louisiana state police announced a joint effort on Wednesday “to deter assaults on federal officers and attempts to obstruct law enforcement actions”.