Federal immigration officers pull out of Louisiana to head to Minneapolis | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
Federal immigration officers are pulling out of a crackdown in Louisiana and heading to Minneapolis in an abrupt turnaround from an operation that sparked protests around New Orleans and aimed to make thousands of arrests, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The shift appeared to signal the end of a Louisiana deployment dubbed the “Catahoula Crunch” that began with the arrival of more than 200 officers in December. The operation was expected to last until February and quickly created fear in immigrant communities.
The Trump administration is sending thousands of federal officers to Minnesota in a sweeping new crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali citizens. More than 2,000 police officers are participating in what the Department of Homeland Security is calling the largest immigration enforcement operation ever.
Officers in Minneapolis were met with demonstrations and anger after an ICE officer fatally shot a woman Wednesday.
Documents obtained by the AP showed federal officers stationed in Louisiana continued to head to Minneapolis later this week.
“For the safety of our law enforcement, we are not releasing operational details while operations are ongoing,” DHS said Friday in response to questions about whether its Louisiana deployment to send officers to Minnesota has ended.
In December, DHS deployed more than 200 federal officers to New Orleans to conduct a months-long sweep in and around the city under the command of Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino, who was also the face of aggressive operations in Chicago, Los Angeles and Charlotte, North Carolina. Bovino was spotted in Minneapolis last week.
The “Catahoula Crunch” began with a goal of 5,000 arrests, according to the AP’s initial report. The operation resulted in the arrest of approximately 370 people as of Dec. 18, according to DHS.
Documents previously reviewed by the AP showed that most of the people arrested in the early days of the crackdown in Louisiana had no criminal records and that authorities were following online criticism and protests against the deployment.
Louisiana’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry, welcomed the crackdown. But New Orleans’ Democratic leaders said the goal of 5,000 arrests was unrealistic and criticized videos showing agents arresting or trying to detain residents, including footage of a U.S. citizen being chased down the street by masked men near his home.
New Orleans’ Democratic leaders were more welcoming of the deployment of the national guard, which Donald Trump authorized after Landry asked for help fighting crime. The soldiers arrived just before the New Year’s anniversary of the truck attack on Bourbon Street that killed 14 people.
In Kenner, a Latino enclave just outside New Orleans, many immigrant-run businesses were temporarily closed during the operation to protect customers they feared would be racially profiled by federal officers regardless of their legal status. Recently, some restaurants announced that they would reopen.
Carmela Diaz, an El Salvador-born US citizen, has kept her Kenner taco restaurant, Taqueria La Conquistadora, closed for more than a month. He’s worried immigration officials might return, but he plans to resume work soon.
“I’ll wait and see this week,” he said. “I have a lot of customers who want to eat here.”
