US immigration officials began an operation in New Orleans on Wednesday to arrest immigrants in the US illegally, federal officials said, making the city the latest target of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration.The Department of Homeland Security said the operation would focus on criminal offenders released from local custody under city policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, Reuters reported.Trump, a Republican, had ordered similar operations in Democratic-led cities across the US, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., in a bid to drive deportations to record levels.The office of New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the New Orleans Police Department.Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, a Republican, has supported federal immigration enforcement efforts and reiterated his backing in a Wednesday interview with local radio. Landry’s office did not respond to a request for comment.Residents and local officials in cities targeted by the immigration crackdown have pushed back, saying Border Patrol and ICE agents have swept up many people with no criminal record and have used heavy-handed tactics that endangered residents.In one family-owned restaurant in New Orleans, a woman assembled makeshift beds so family members could sleep there to avoid potentially being profiled by federal agents while travelling between home and work. The woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Abby, said her family came to the US from Mexico two decades ago but that she and others have not been able to obtain legal status. She said she worried that she could be arrested by immigration authorities and separated from her 10-year-old son, a US citizen. “Not all of us are criminals,” she said. “We’re hardworking people. We’re people who get up early to achieve our goals and fight for our dreams.”The Latino population in the New Orleans metro area rapidly increased after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005. Many undocumented Latino migrants flocked to the city to help rebuild in the wake of Katrina’s destruction, immigrant rights groups say, and now comprise upward of 20% of residents in Jefferson Parish, directly to the west of the city proper, according to Census data.Members of immigrant rights group Union Migrante posted videos and photos showing Border Patrol agents questioning workers and making arrests at home improvement stores across the New Orleans metropolitan area.Union Migrante volunteer Rachel Taber said Border Patrol agents told her to stay back 25 feet as she recorded them questioning roofing workers at a home in the Kenner area of New Orleans on Wednesday. “I’m doing this for my neighbours, for justice, our democracy, for the people who helped rebuild our houses after Katrina,” said Taber, an immigrant justice organiser, adding that she was aware of at least 10 arrests on Wednesday by federal agents. “Immigrants are the fabric of the United States. The real criminals are in the White House.” Taber said immigrant workers and school children were staying home across the city as the immigration operation began. “Business in New Orleans has been paralyzed,” she said. “People are having to choose between their jobs and their families.”New Orleans city council member Lesli Harris said the enforcement operation was causing fear and anxiety in the city, telling CNN that “what we’re learning is that they are targeting people who are here legally … who are mothers of children, high school students.”The operation in New Orleans was expected to run through the end of the year but its scope remains unclear.Last month a US official told Reuters that Gregory Bovino, a US Border Patrol official who has led Trump’s crackdown in Los Angeles, Chicago and Charlotte, had plans to head to New Orleans. Bovino on Wednesday confirmed he was in the city, writing on social media that “we are here arresting criminals who should not be here. The state, local and federal law enforcement partners in Louisiana are excellent partners!”Last month a federal judge terminated a 2013 consent decree that had limited the ability of the New Orleans Police Department to assist federal immigration enforcement. Still, New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said in late November that the city would not enforce federal immigration law. The Department of Justice labelled New Orleans a “sanctuary city” in a list published in August.The action in New Orleans, with a population of around 384 000, follows a Border Patrol-led operation in Charlotte, North Carolina.
