Records Reveal Online Surveillance, Arrests in New Orleans Immigration Crackdown
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — State and federal authorities are closely monitoring online criticism and protests against the immigration crackdown in New Orleans, monitoring message boards around the clock for threats to officers and compiling regular updates on public “sentiment” around arrests, according to police records reviewed by The News.
The intelligence gathering comes even as officials have released few details about the first arrests made last week as part of the “Catahoula Crunch,” prompting calls for greater transparency from local officials who say they have been kept in the dark about virtually every aspect of the operation.
“Online opinions remain mixed: some support the operations while others are against,” said a report distributed early Sunday among authorities. Previous bulletins noted “a mix of groups urging the public to register with ICE and Border Patrol,” as well as “additional locations where agents may encounter immigrants.”
Immigration authorities have insisted that the raids target “criminal illegal aliens.” But police records detail the criminal records of less than a third of the 38 people arrested in the first two days of the operation.
Local leaders told the AP that those figures, which law enforcement officials were warned not to distribute to the media, undermined the stated goal of the raid. They also expressed concern that online surveillance could curb free speech, as authorities threaten to charge anyone who interferes with the enforcement of immigration laws.
“This confirms what we already knew: This was not about public safety, but about stoking chaos and fear and terrorizing communities,” said state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who represents New Orleans. “It’s promoting an unhealthy narrative of stereotypes that immigrants are violent.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about the intelligence gathering and referred the AP to an earlier news release touting “dozens of arrests.” The agency has not released a count of those detained in custody or their criminal records.
Few of those initially arrested had violent criminal records.
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DHS has publicly detailed only six arrests stemming from the operation (all people with criminal records), including one man they vaguely said was convicted of “homicide” and another convicted of sexual assault. The agency, which has several hundred agents on the ground in southeastern Louisiana, has said it aims to make at least 5,000 arrests in the region in an operation that is expected to last up to two months.
“Americans should be able to live without fear of violent criminal illegal aliens harming them, their families or their neighbors,” said DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.
DHS and Republican leaders have argued that the crackdown is aimed at the most violent criminals. But records reviewed by the AP identify only nine of the 38 people arrested in the first few days with criminal records that went beyond traffic violations; information that, according to intelligence bulletins, “should not be distributed to the media.”
New Orleans City Council Speaker JP Morrell said the stated goals of the operation to arrest violent criminals did not align with the reality of what was happening.
“There is literally no information provided to the city of New Orleans,” Morrell said. “If the goal was for them to come here and increase existing law enforcement, to go after violent criminals or people with extensive criminal records, why wouldn’t you be more transparent about who you’ve arrested and why?”
Morrell and other officials have said the crackdown appears to be a raid focused on brown-skinned people, citing viral videos of encounters like masked officers chasing a 23-year-old U.S. citizen walking home from the grocery store.
Law enforcement officials have been carefully monitoring such images and the public reaction. “For some fans, videos with sounds of children crying in the background while their parents are arrested weigh heavily on their hearts,” a report states.
Authorities monitor public sentiment and protests
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The records also shed new light on cooperation between state and federal authorities in an operation welcomed by Louisiana’s Republican governor, 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 closely follows discussions on the Reddit online forum that local residents have used to exchange information about immigration raids.
One report noted that some “have gone so far as to accuse officers of racial profiling specifically in Hispanic areas.” Another pointed to social media posts that suggested agents “are not fulfilling their mission of targeting criminal immigrants only.” And a third noted that critics of the raids “bring up past hurricanes and the work done by immigrants” in their aftermath.
“Chatter is slower at night, mainly commenting on posts from earlier in the day,” one report states. “Once daylight arrives and the agencies come out again, conversations and new posts will resume.”
The reports have not identified 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. “It has been confirmed that this did not actually occur,” the center told authorities on Saturday.
One report described an incident involving “suspicious persons/protesters” who showed up early Saturday at an ICE facility in St. Charles Parish, where records show detainees were expected to be processed.
Some local officials said they were unaware of the state’s role in online monitoring. Louisiana State Police promised “operational support” to immigration authorities and warned the public that officers will arrest anyone who assaults a federal agent or causes criminal damage to property.
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“The Louisiana State Police remains vigilant in monitoring social media activity related to protests, activism and other forms of public response,” Trooper Danny Berrincha, a state police spokesman, wrote in an email to the AP. “Through the LSP Fusion Center, we actively monitor developments and facilitate information sharing and communication between our partner agencies.”
The fusion center has also tracked tools used by protesters to thwart federal immigration law enforcement, highlighting links on social media to report flyers, training on how to film federal agents and the emergence of a hotline for reporting arrests. The surveillance extended to activists’ discussions about the presence of immigration authorities near an elementary school and recapitulated demonstrations inside the New Orleans City Council chambers and elsewhere.
“They can monitor me all they want,” said Rachel Taber, an organizer with the New Orleans-based grassroots advocacy group Unión Migrante, which shares crowdsourced reports and videos on federal immigration enforcement operations. “We’re not doing anything illegal.”
Beth Davis, a spokesperson for Indivisible NOLA, which has organized some of the training described in the law enforcement briefings, said it was sad that authorities seemed concerned about law-abiding citizens. “That they feel threatened by a group of community organizers who have nothing but phones and whistles blows my mind.”
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Mustian reported from New York.