{"id":336319,"date":"2025-12-08T04:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T04:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/336319\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T04:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T04:47:12","slug":"arrests-in-new-orleans-immigration-crackdown-via-records-reviewed-by-ap-detail-online-monitoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/336319\/","title":{"rendered":"Arrests in New Orleans immigration crackdown via records reviewed by AP detail online monitoring"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n New Orleans (AP) \u2014 State and federal authorities are closely tracking online criticism and demonstrations against the immigration crackdown in New Orleans<\/a>, monitoring message boards around the clock for threats to agents while compiling regular updates on public \u201csentiment\u201d surrounding the arrests, according to law enforcement records reviewed by The Associated Press.\n <\/p>\n

\n The intelligence gathering comes even as officials have released few details about the first arrests made last week as part of \u201cCatahoula Crunch,\u201d prompting calls for greater transparency from local officials who say they\u2019ve been kept in the dark about virtually every aspect of the operation.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cOnline opinions still remain mixed, with some supporting the operations while others are against them,\u201d said a briefing circulated early Sunday to law enforcement. Earlier bulletins noted \u201ca combination of groups urging the public to record ICE and Border Patrol\u201d as well as \u201cadditional locations where agents can find immigrants.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Immigration authorities have insisted the sweeps are targeted at \u201ccriminal illegal aliens.\u201d But the law enforcement records detail criminal histories for less than a third of the 38 people arrested in the first two days of the operation.\n <\/p>\n

\n Local leaders told the AP those numbers \u2014 which law enforcement officials were admonished not to distribute to the media \u2014 undermined the stated aim of the roundup. They also expressed concern that the online surveillance could chill free speech as authorities threaten to charge anyone interfering with immigration enforcement.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt confirms what we already knew \u2014 this was not about public safety, it\u2019s about stoking chaos and fear and terrorizing communities,\u201d said state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who represents New Orleans. \u201cIt\u2019s furthering a sick narrative of stereotypes that immigrants are violent.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about the intelligence gathering and referred the AP to a prior news release<\/a> touting \u201cdozens of arrests.\u201d The agency has not released an accounting of the detainees taken into custody or their criminal histories.\n <\/p>\n

\n DHS has publicly detailed only six arrests stemming from the operation \u2014 all people with criminal histories \u2014 including a man they vaguely said was convicted of \u201chomicide\u201d and another convicted of sexual assault. The agency, which has several hundred agents on the ground in southeast Louisiana, has said it aims to make at least 5,000 arrests<\/a> in the region over an operation expected to last up to two months.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAmericans should be able to live without fear of violent criminal illegal aliens harming them, their families or their neighbors,\u201d DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.\n <\/p>\n

\n DHS and Republican leaders have framed the crackdown as targeting the most violent offenders. But the records reviewed by the AP identify only nine of the 38 people arrested in the first days as having criminal histories that rose beyond traffic violations \u2014 information the intelligence bulletins warn \u201cshould not be distributed to the media.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Customs<\/p>\n

\n New Orleans City Council President J.P. Morrell said the stated goals of the operation to arrest violent offenders did not align with the reality of what is taking place.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere\u2019s literally no information being given to the city of New Orleans whatsoever,\u201d Morrell said. \u201cIf the goal was for them to come here and augment existing law enforcement, to pursue violent criminals or people with extensive criminal histories, why wouldn\u2019t you be more transparent about who you\u2019ve arrested and why?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Morrell and other officials have said the crackdown appears to be a dragnet focused on people with brown skin, citing viral videos of encounters such as masked agents chasing a 23-year-old U.S. citizen<\/a> returning home from the grocery store.\n <\/p>\n

\n Law enforcement officials have been carefully tracking such footage and public reaction. \u201cFor some supporters, the videos with sounds of children crying in the background as their parents are placed under arrest, is weighing heavy on their hearts,\u201d one briefing stated.\n <\/p>\n

Authorities monitoring public sentiment and protests<\/p>\n

\n The records also shed new light on cooperation among state and federal authorities in an operation welcomed by Louisiana\u2019s Republican Gov. Jeff Landry. Both the FBI and Customs and Border Protection have stationed agents at the Louisiana State Analytical and Fusion Exchange, an intelligence and data sharing center that is closely following discussions on the online forum Reddit that local residents have used to exchange information about the immigration raids.\n <\/p>\n

\n One briefing noted that some \u201chave gone so far as to accuse agents of racially profiling Hispanic areas specifically.\u201d Another flagged social media posts suggesting agents \u201care not keeping with the mission of targeting criminal immigrants only.\u201d And a third pointed out that critics of the raids \u201cbring up past hurricanes and the work done by immigrants\u201d in their aftermath.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe chatter is slower during the night, mainly just commenting on posts from earlier in the day,\u201d one of the briefings states. \u201cOnce daylight arrives and agencies are back out, the chatter and new posts will pick back up.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Wilma<\/p>\n

\n The briefings have identified no threats to law enforcement, but the fusion center has sought to debunk what it called false reports that a pedestrian was fatally struck by law enforcement. \u201cIt has been confirmed that this actually did not occur,\u201d the center told law enforcement on Saturday.\n <\/p>\n

\n One briefing described an incident involving \u201csuspicious persons\/protesters\u201d who showed up early Saturday at an ICE facility in St. Charles Parish, where records show the detainees were expected to be processed.\n <\/p>\n

\n Some local officials said they had been unaware of the state\u2019s role in the online monitoring. Louisiana State Police pledged \u201coperational support\u201d to immigration authorities and warned the public that troopers will arrest anyone who assaults a federal agent or causes criminal damage to property.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe Louisiana State Police remains vigilant in monitoring social media activity related to protests, activism and other forms of public response,\u201d Trooper Danny Berrincha, a state police spokesperson, wrote in an email to the AP. \u201cThrough the LSP Fusion Center, we actively track developments and facilitate the sharing of information and communication among our partner agencies.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The fusion center also has tracked the tools used by protesters to foil federal immigration enforcement, highlighting social media links to whistle handouts, trainings on filming federal agents and the emergence of a hotline for reporting arrests. The surveillance extended to activist discussions about immigration authorities\u2019 presence near an elementary school and recapped demonstrations inside the New Orleans City Council chambers and elsewhere.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey can monitor me all they want,\u201d said Rachel Taber, an organizer with the New Orleans-based grassroots advocacy group Union Migrante, which shares crowdsourced reports and videos of the federal immigration enforcement operations. \u201cWe are not doing anything illegal.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Beth Davis, a spokesperson for Indivisible NOLA, which has organized some of the trainings described in the law enforcement briefings, said it was sad authorities seemed preoccupied with law-abiding citizens. \u201cThat they feel threatened by a bunch of community organizers that have nothing other than phones and whistles blows my mind.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Orleans (AP) \u2014 State and federal authorities are closely tracking online criticism and demonstrations against the immigration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-336319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}