In the final weeks of 2025, the city of New Orleans, Louisiana transformed into one of the epicenters of the U.S. federal government’s immigration operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has launched an operation combines actions by ICE and other federal agencies such as CBP, with the stated aim of arresting illegal migrants.
On December 3, 2025, the operation was officially launched Catahoula Crunch in New Orleans and the surrounding area arrest up to 5,000 people in two months.
This is a deployment that includes the following Hundreds of federal agents operate in heavily immigrant neighborhoods, in public parking lots and on open streetswhich in turn creates fear among Latino communities that coexist with an unusual police presence, they say Guardian.
Although DHS claims that the focus is on “illegal immigrants with criminal records,” reports were investigated by Associated Press show that Only nine of the 38 people arrested in the first two days had criminal records beyond minor crimes.
The arrests had an immediate impact on the daily lives of New Orleans’ Latino residents. Even immigrant protection organizations such as Unión Migrante denounced this American citizens were temporarily detained or pursued by federal agentswhich has increased the climate of fear.
The President of the New Orleans Council, JP Morrell, expressed their concerns about the lack of transparency in arrests and There is a lack of public information about how many people have been arrested and their backgrounds.
In response to this tactic, New Orleans Mayor-elect Helena Moreno, a Democrat and Mexican-American immigrant, distributed the “Know Your Rights” guide. Urges migrants not to run, argue or resist when approached by ICE officers.
Aside from that, recommends keeping your hands visible and, in the event of a traffic stop, asking whether the officer is local police, ICE or CBP.
In New Orleans, Restaurants and businesses that rely heavily on immigrants reported concerns about the Labor shortage and the possibility of employees being arrested without notice.
In statements for Louisiana IlluminatorJolie Gautreau, a waitress at Blue Oak BBQ in New Orleans, said she started doing this because of the surgeries They wonder whether they should continue to go to work and risk arrest or stay home and don’t make any money.
Another problem in the middle of the operation Catahoula Crunch is that it was revealed DHS is monitoring real-time public reactions, discussion forums, and protests related to the immigration surgealthough they released little basic information about who was arrested and under what criteria.
Documentation analyzed by AP revealed that state and federal teams are conducting one Permanent monitoring of conversations in social networks and digital forums.
The goal is according to internal reports Identify potential threats to agents and measure citizen response to the arrests.
“It confirms what we already knew: This is not about public safety; It’s about creating chaos and fear and terrorizing communities“said State Senator Royce Duplessis. For him this is The operation feeds “a sick narrative of stereotypes that portray immigrants as violent.”
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