AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

We turn now to New Orleans and southeast Louisiana, where more than 250 federal immigration agents launched Operation Catahoula Crunch this week. They reportedly aim to make more than 5,000 arrests over two months.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says the operation will target, quote, “the worst of the worst,” unquote. But local officials say they’re skeptical. City Councilmember Lesli Harris responded, quote, “There are nowhere near 5,000 violent offenders in our region. … What we’re seeing instead are mothers, teenagers, and workers being detained during routine check-ins, from their homes and places of work.” So far, agents have targeted the parking lots of home improvement stores like Home Depot and workers at construction sites.

At a New Orleans City Council hearing Thursday, about 30 protesters were removed after demanding city leaders do more to protect immigrants, calling for ICE-free zones. In a public comment session, residents went to the microphone one by one and were cut off when it was clear they wanted to talk about immigration, which was not on the formal agenda. This is Mich González of SouthEast Dignity Not Detention Coalition. After his mic was cut, he continued to try to be heard.

MICH GONZÁLEZ: We delivered a letter to City Council on November 21st. I’m part of the SouthEast Dignity Not Detention Coalition, and we requested a meeting. This should be on the agenda. It should be on the agenda.

CHAIR: Not germane.

MICH GONZÁLEZ: Public safety is at the heart — 

Little kids are not going to school right now. People are not able to take their disabled parents to their medical appointments. … Please, I’m begging you.

PROTESTERS: Shame! Shame!

MICH GONZÁLEZ: And right now it’s about the safety of the people who live here. But I promise you, in just — these people are planning to stay here for two months and take as many as 5,000 of the people who live in this great city of New Orleans.

PROTESTERS: Shame! Shame!

MICH GONZÁLEZ: And they are the people who work here. They’re the people who clean dishes here. They’re the people who take care of the elderly in the nursing homes. … Please, I’m begging you.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined by Homero López, legal director for ISLA, Immigrant Services and Legal Advocacy, based in New Orleans.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Homero. If you can start off by talking about what exactly you understand this plan is? As they move in 250 immigration agents, they say they’re making 5,000 arrests in the next two months. What’s happening to New Orleans?

HOMERO LÓPEZ: Yes. Thank you, Amy, for having me on.

We have seen the officers come into the city and the surrounding areas, as well. And the fact that they’re looking for a specific quota, that they have a number that they’re going after, makes it clear that they’re not targeting, as they claim, the worst of the worst. Instead, they’re going to target whoever they can, and as the Supreme Court has unfortunately authorized them, they’re using racial profiling as part of that approach.

AMY GOODMAN: They’re calling it “Catahoula Crunch.” Louisiana’s state dog is the Catahoula. Explain what they’re saying here, what Kristi Noem is talking about, who the immigrants are that they’re going after.

HOMERO LÓPEZ: Yeah. They originally had called it the “Swamp Sweep,” but I guess they thought “SS” was a little bit too on the nose, so they went after “Catahoula Crunch” instead.

And what they’re saying is they’re going to target, you know, folks who have criminal backgrounds, or at least that’s the purported position from the higher-ups at least. There was a video of Bovino recently saying he’s going after immigrants. He was asked, “Who are you targeting? What are you — who are you looking for?” And he said, “This is an immigration raid.” And so, he’s — they’re focusing on immigrants across the board.

What we’ve seen has been folks at work, folks at their check-ins, people around schools, ICE officers setting up around or CBP officers setting up around the schools. And the fear that’s being — the fear that’s coming into the — being sowed in the community is really the true intent of what they’re — of their operation here.

AMY GOODMAN: Catahoula Crunch named after the Louisiana state dog. Didn’t Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem famously shoot her dog?

HOMERO LÓPEZ: That is a story that’s come out, yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Many ICE officials who now work at the national level came up through Louisiana. Is that right? Can you talk about them? And who are the hundreds of agents moved in to do these arrests?

HOMERO LÓPEZ: Yeah, Louisiana is playing a oversized role when it comes to immigration enforcement throughout the country. The former wildlife and fisheries secretary here in Louisiana is now one of the deputy — or, is the deputy director of ICE nationally. Our former area, New Orleans, ICE director, field office director, is also at headquarters. There are various deportation officers here from Louisiana who have gone to work at headquarters. And so, the approach that they used to take or that they have taken in Louisiana since 2014 to incarcerate as many people as possible, quickly warehouse and deport people from the state, is something that seems to be the structure that is being operated now from the national headquarters.

AMY GOODMAN: Louisiana, in other parts of the country, we know it particularly here when it comes to detention. You have Mahmoud Khalil, who is the Columbia student who was imprisoned in Louisiana. You have Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts graduate student who was imprisoned in Louisiana. Talk about the overall detention complex in Louisiana.

HOMERO LÓPEZ: Louisiana has a history, a terrible history, of being the incarceration capital of the world. And that is no different when it comes now to immigration detention. Louisiana is number two when it comes to the second — the state with the second-largest detained immigrant population in the country, next to Texas. However, we’re not a border state. We also don’t have a large immigrant population by numbers. Instead, what Louisiana does is it receives a lot of people who are detained around the country.

And so, the additional aspect of what happens in Louisiana is that we have these very rural, isolated detention centers in central Louisiana, central and northern Louisiana, which are very far away from major metropolitan or from major population centers, which means what you end up with is people removed from their legal and support systems. So, when you had someone like Mahmoud Khalil being moved down here from New York, what you had was removing him from his social network, from people who could assist him, from being able to provide him with assistance. Same thing with Rümeysa Öztürk. And these were highly publicized cases, places where folks had large support networks. And so, when we deal with folks who don’t have those support networks, who don’t have that publicity, who don’t have that kind of support, and you have them in such a remote, isolated area, what you end up is basically warehousing folks without giving them an opportunity to fight their case and be able to present a viable case through actual due process.

AMY GOODMAN: You can’t help but notice that New Orleans is a blue city in a red state, Louisiana. Louisiana has the most detention beds outside of Texas. Can you talk about the consent decree that was overturned last month, Homero?

HOMERO LÓPEZ: The consent decree was overturned last month by the Justice Department, and they wanted to get rid of it. It had been in place for over a decade here in Louisiana, that did not — or, here in New Orleans, that had not allowed the local sheriff’s office to cooperate with ICE.

Now the new sheriff, we don’t know exactly what she’s going to do, but what it does is it removes this tool that existed, which was originally implemented because of previous abuses, that had been determined by a federal court, that New Orleans police, New Orleans Sheriff’s Office should not be cooperating, and had ordered the sheriff’s office not to cooperate. Without that consent decree in place, it’s now up to the sheriff. And so, there is a movement on the ground from advocacy groups and from other organizers to push the sheriff to continue to have that kind of policy, but we’ll see what comes from that.

AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about the people you represent? I mean, I think it’s really important, not only in New Orleans, but around the country. A number of the people being picked up are going to their court hearings. They are following the rules, and they end up being arrested.

HOMERO LÓPEZ: Yeah, the majority of people who are being arrested, the majority of calls that we’re receiving are from folks who have — who are going through the process, whether they be children who originally applied through the Special Immigrant Juvenile status process and are awaiting their ability to apply for residency, whether it’s spouses of U.S. citizens who are going to their interviews and are being picked up, whether it’s people who have immigration court hearings and have filed their applications and are attending the hearings, are going — again, they’re doing it, quote-unquote, “the right way.” And that’s who is being picked up. Those are the folks who are the low-hanging fruit. Those are the folks who are going to be targeted.

There’s a reason that these officers are going to worksites and not necessarily doing in-depth investigations to identify folks that they claim are a danger to the community. Instead, what they’re doing is they’re taking folks out of our community: our neighbors, our friends, our family members. And that’s who they’re detaining and they’re sending into these terrible detention centers in order to try to quickly deport them from the country.

AMY GOODMAN: Homero López, I want to thank you for being with us. Do you have a final comment on the City Council hearing that was held yesterday as mics were turned off on person after person who was calling for ICE-free zones?

HOMERO LÓPEZ: Yeah, we hope that City Council will take a stance. We understand that they don’t necessarily have a ton of power over federal actions, but the point here is about the values that the city stands for and what we are going to demonstrate to our community and to our residents of who we support, what we support and what we stand for in the city.

AMY GOODMAN: Homero López is the legal director of ISLA, the Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy, based in New Orleans, Louisiana.