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New Orleans is seeing the first arrests in the Trump administration's latest immigration enforcement campaign. The operation is aimed at southern Louisiana, and the arrests came Wednesday. NPR's Martin Kaste reports from New Orleans.
MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: The Department of Homeland Security is framing this operation as it has its previous efforts in LA, Chicago and Charlotte, as focused on hardened criminals. In a statement, DHS accuses New Orleans of being a sanctuary city and accuses the jail of releasing, quote, "illegal criminal aliens that should never have been put back on the streets," unquote. It says this operation will target immigrants who've been arrested for crimes such as home invasion and rape.
SAM PURIER: I think it's a good thing.
KASTE: Walking past Jackson Square, part-time New Orleans resident Sam Purier (ph) is glad to see this operation.
PURIER: As far as cities with high crime rates, New Orleans is right there on the top. It's young crime violence with guns. If they can help curb that, they're welcome.
KASTE: But if earlier operations are any indication, ICE and Border Patrol are also about to arrest a lot of people who have not committed crimes. In Chicago, for instance, the vast majority of those detained by ICE did not have criminal records besides illegal border crossing. As Jean Powers (ph) closes up her shop in the French quarter, she says she's leery about a similar pattern here.
JEAN POWERS: The ICE agents are going to maybe the Home Depots and just certain occupations and really seeking these people out.
KASTE: And in fact, the first few reports of arrests on Wednesday were at construction supply stores where day laborers gather. So far there have been only a handful of reported arrests, but the threat of raids is already having a wider effect. Some small restaurants and bars have closed or limited their hours for lack of workers.
(SOUNDBITE OF DEVICE BEEPING)
JESSE BERMUDA: (Speaking Spanish).
KASTE: In the suburb of Kenner, with a big Latino population, Jesse Bermuda (ph) says the Latin American grocery store he runs has a shortage of workers and customers.
BERMUDA: We do close earlier. And we open areas where people send money transfer offices, we open it later.
KASTE: He says people here have been lying low since April when they started seeing reports of immigration enforcement elsewhere in the country. But he says now, with the news of this operation, this store is practically empty. The mayor and police chief of Kenner have welcomed ICE, endorsing its mission to arrest and deport criminals. And Bermuda says that disappoints him.
BERMUDA: The majority of these illegal immigrants, they're hard workers. They pay their fair due taxes, and some don't. But at the end of the day, it's not what they make it seem like, you know, criminals.
KASTE: In New Orleans proper, city officials say their policy has been to keep police out of the immigration enforcement business, but they say they don't agree that that's the same as impeding federal efforts. That matters because the state recently passed a law making it a crime to hinder, delay or interfere with immigration enforcement. Yesterday, the ACLU sued to block the law, saying it's too broad. In the meantime, Elsa Euzeda (ph) sits at a cash register in a Honduran food takeaway store and shows off her new remote control.
ELSA EUZEDA: (Speaking Spanish).
KASTE: "From here at the cash register, I can open it and close it," she says, talking about the store's locking glass door.
EUZEDA: (Speaking Spanish).
KASTE: "It's for the safety of people who are here inside," she says. They just installed this remote lock knowing that Border Patrol and ICE were planning this operation.
EUZEDA: (Speaking Spanish).
KASTE: "It's for ICE," she says, "criminals don't come here, thank God."
Martin Kaste, NPR News, New Orleans. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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