Immigrant crackdowns shift to cities in Louisiana and Minnesota

ICE presence in Minnesota appears to be rooted in a different aim, targeting mainly the Somali community. (Steijn Leijzer/Unsplash)

ICE and border patrol started deporting and arresting citizens in New Orleans and the Twin Cities.

Article by Abigail Gambla, Assistant Chief White House Producer

MINNEAPOLIS - At the start of his second presidency, President Trump made it clear that he would crack down on illegal immigration in cities across the United States. Deportations, arrests, and detentions have already been executed in numerous places by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), specifically the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Border Patrol. Several ICE operations have already occurred in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Now, the focus shifts towards New Orleans and twin cities St. Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota.

The enforcement designated “Operation Catahoula Crunch” also known as the “Swamp Sweep” is in motion in New Orleans, with Border Patrol hoping to make nearly 5,000 arrests across the crackdown. 

This operation appears to be different from the ones conducted in other cities. They are sending 250 men from Border Patrol as opposed to ICE, and their focus has narrowed onto a different target group. “They are specifically targeting immigrants who were arrested, held in jail locally inside New Orleans, and then were released,” said Senior Homeland Security Correspondent for NBC News, Julia Ainsley. ICE wants undocumented immigrants to be handed over to them once they have served their time, but as a sanctuary city, the immigrants are released instead. 

As reported in other cities, innocent people claim they are caught in the crossfire. Jacelynn Guzman, a 22 year old from the suburbs of New Orleans, was chased by masked border patrol as she was walking home from the store. “I immediately started telling him I was born and raised here. Like I’m a US citizen. And he did not care at all,” Guzman told CBS News. 

Simultaneously, there has been a crackdown in the Twin Cities, albeit for a different purpose. ICE presence in Minnesota appears to be rooted in a different aim, targeting mainly the Somali community. “The twin city area has the largest population of Somalis living inside the United States. Many of them are naturalized US citizens, but ICE says that some of them are in violation of immigration law,” said Ainsley. 

The DHS conducted an investigation on the Somali community in Minneapolis on orders from the Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and President Trump on the suspicion of benefits fraud, including Medicare and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). “The Somalians should be out of here. They’ve destroyed our country,” the President commented. The DHS claims that nearly half of the community committed fraud despite being on visas from the US, a violation of immigration law. 

Immigrants were taken to Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport, where locals protested against the airport allowing deportation flights. Geoff Paquette, part of Minnesota’s hospitality union, commented on the consequences of the flights. “These deportations and the terror in our neighborhoods are ripping families apart and doing nothing but to sow fear and anxiety in our communities.”