ICE in New Orleans – Cleaning Up After City’s “Sanctuary Jail” Policies

U.S. immigration authorities have launched a major enforcement operation in New Orleans, known as “Catahoula Crunch,” after the Department of Homeland Security said “criminal illegal aliens are roaming free” because local sanctuary policies prevent the honoring of ICE detainer requests.

DHS is deploying roughly 250 Border Patrol agents with an internal goal of arresting about 5,000 people across Louisiana and Mississippi.

The operation specifically targets offenders who were released from local custody rather than transferred to federal agents due to New Orleans’ restrictions on cooperation with immigration enforcement.

The Orleans Parish jail has long operated under a consent-decree policy that barred jailers from honoring ICE detainer requests in most cases, meaning individuals suspected of immigration violations were released at the end of their local custody rather than transferred to federal authorities.

The policy was sweeping: unless a suspect faced charges for crimes such as murder, rape, or kidnapping, the jail would not hold them past release time, notify ICE of their release, or share information for immigration enforcement.

As recently as 2025, the jail’s sanctuary-style policy remained a major point of conflict, with the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office moving to dissolve the consent decree and restore cooperation with ICE.

New Orleans police leadership have publicly stated that the city will not enforce federal immigration law, meaning local officers will not participate in immigration arrests.

State Attorney General Liz Murrill and Governor Jeff Landry strongly support the operation, while New Orleans Councilmembers Helena Moreno and JP Morrell have pointed to past abuses by federal agents in other cities.

Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the NOPD will assist federal agents only when public safety requires it but will not take part in immigration arrests. Some local departments, including the Kenner Police, already cooperate with federal enforcement.

In early November, a federal judge allowed Louisiana to proceed with its challenge to the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office’s long-standing “sanctuary” jail policy, which bars deputies from honoring ICE detainer requests that would hold noncitizens up to 48 hours past their release dates.

The policy, created in 2013 after two construction workers were illegally jailed for months on detainers following minor arrests, blocks the jail from investigating immigration status or holding people for ICE without a court order, except in a limited number of serious violent-crime cases.

Murrill argues the policy now violates a 2024 state law requiring full cooperation with federal immigration authorities and is seeking to dissolve the settlement.

The judge ruled the state can intervene because Sheriff Susan Hutson has not updated the policy despite the new law.

Landry and other Republicans have long opposed sanctuary-style rules in New Orleans, and similar limits in the New Orleans Police Department may be revisited as the department prepares to exit its federal consent decree.

Rights groups and some local officials are angry because they claim ICE is detaining people with no criminal record. This is technically true in the narrow sense that, during a raid, everyone present may be briefly detained until their identity and citizenship are confirmed, after which they are released.

However, media outlets and left-leaning critics continue accusing ICE of detaining or arresting people “without a criminal record,” while ignoring the fact that in sanctuary jurisdictions illegal aliens who commit crimes are often released without bail and told to return for their trial.

If they fail to appear, there is no trial, no conviction, and therefore no criminal record.

Additionally, if someone is in the country illegally or already has a final order of deportation, ICE is fully empowered under federal law to arrest and remove them, and no prior criminal record is required.

Critics also complain about “aggressive tactics,” “car chases,” and broken windows. In reality, force is used only when detainees refuse to comply or attack the agents.

Broken windows occur when ICE must forcibly extract someone who locks themselves in a vehicle and refuses to provide identification or obey lawful orders. And if someone attempts to flee in a car, ICE will pursue them.

Rights groups have also cited arrests at construction sites and home-improvement stores, and note that some immigrants are sleeping at work to avoid being stopped.

But there is nothing unlawful about ICE making arrests in public places, and working illegally is itself grounds for arrest and deportation under U.S. immigration law.

The Latino population now makes up about 20 percent of Jefferson Parish, and while activists claim they are all frightened, those who are in the country legally have nothing to fear.

Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino confirmed he is overseeing the operation and said agents are arresting criminals who “should not be here.”

This includes people in the country illegally, those working illegally, and individuals already under orders of deportation; none of these categories require prior criminal convictions for ICE to take action.

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