New Orleans 'Operation Catahoula Crunch' Exposes Media Lies About ICE Enforcement

NEW ORLEANS, LA - “Operation Catahoula Crunch,” a New Orleans-centered ICE operation, has thus far met with very good success, with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stating that 250 people have been arrested thus far in the operation.

That adds to similar successes in large-scale ICE operations in Chicago, Charlotte, Los Angeles, Memphis, and other blue cities, the Washington Post reports.  

The operations conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have highlighted the partisan divide in the country, while also exposing the mainstream media as stretching the truth when it comes to who is being targeted by them.  

For example, the Post quoted a resident in Gretna, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. Siomara Cruz applauded the efforts of ICE.  

“They need to do things the proper way,” said Cruz, 59, a housewife of Cuban descent, as she saw ICE take two Latina illegals into custody outside a restaurant. “The law is the law. Every country has its law, and you’ve got to respect it.”  

However, not all were happy, with another resident, Tracey Daniels, calling it “awful” when ICE officers in an unmarked van detained a Latino man outside a gas station.  

“They’re just snatching these people, snatching them away from their families,” said Daniels, 61. “Now they got people afraid to come outside, businesses closing.”  

While the Department of Homeland Security has boasted about the criminal illegals it has removed from the streets, including terrorists, murderers, rapists, armed robbers, and drug dealers, the mainstream media continues to focus on the occasional incident where ICE officers may get something wrong, or even when they simply smell blood in the water.  

Remember the so-called “Maryland dad,” Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, whom the media portrayed as a working Joe, a father trying to earn a living for his family? The media and complicit Democrats, such as Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D), attempted to gain sympathy for Abrego-Garcia, who is a confirmed member of the notorious violent MS-13 gang. Van Hollen even flew down to El Salvador to visit him in prison in one of the most gag-inducing photo ops in history.  

Or how about Melissa Tran, a “Maryland mother” who was again portrayed by Van Hollen as a “mom and business owner.” What Van Hollen and the mainstream media left out was the fact that Tran, born Mong Tuyen Thi Tran, had criminal convictions of grand larceny and multiple counts of forgery and fraud, for which an immigration judge issued a final order of removal in 2004.  

Is it any wonder, then, that the administration’s handling of immigration is polling underwater? As the Post was happy to note, 43 percent of Americans approve of the president’s handling of immigration, while 55 percent oppose, according to 10 national polls conducted in November and early December.  

New Orleans, run by Democrats, is a so-called “sanctuary city,” where officials refuse to support federal immigration laws, and in some cases actively insert themselves in ICE operations. Now, however, the city may run afoul of a new state law that is designed to penalize anyone who impedes immigration enforcement. 

In the case of Gretna, the police department has signed a 287(g) agreement, which directs the agency to cooperate with ICE to deport anyone who entered the country illegally.  

Such agreements have become a source of controversy in Gretna, with some saying immigration enforcement is a federal issue and should be left up to federal agents. They claim that having local police cooperate with ICE could alienate immigrant communities or the rights of visitors. However, local police say that they get more crime complaints than they do about Catahoula Crunch.  

Gretna Deputy Police Chief Jason DiMarco, who assists in commanding the 150-person Gretna Police Department, agreed that the department needs to serve all in the community, which is pretty diverse. However, he said the large number of undocumented immigrants (illegal aliens) in the city makes it more challenging to identify suspects.  

DiMarco said last month, police accompanied ICE on a raid that grabbed four suspects, including an alleged MS-13 gang member. DiMarco added that within the past year, the agency has investigated several serious crimes committed by illegals, including a murderer who fled the country after killing another illegal alien.  

Due to the 287(g) agreement, Gretna officers can now coordinate directly with ICE agents.  

“If they run across an illegal immigrant in their day-to-day patrol activities...they can actually detain the person, check their legal status, and if they aren’t here legally, we can contact ICE, and they’ll come and get them,” DiMarco explained during an office interview early in December.  

DiMarco, who has a family member from Honduras, has seen Gretna grow more diverse in recent years. His own family includes immigrants from several countries, including France, Italy, and Cuba, all of whom likely came to the U.S. through legal means.  

“New Orleans is the original melting pot of the world,” DiMarco said. “...People from every walk of life lived in this city. And they intertwined and managed to live together cohesively.”  

DiMarco said that thus far, the department hasn’t received any complaints about the cooperative effort with ICE, while noting that even if some don’t agree, officers are duty-bound to enforce the law. One of those laws is the one Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, signed in June, which made it a criminal offense to engage in “any act intended to hinder, delay, prevent, or otherwise interfere with or thwart federal immigration enforcement efforts.” A person who violates the law is subject to jail or fines. 

“We don’t get to pick and choose which one you can and can’t enforce,” DiMarco said.  

DiMarco does fear, however, that ongoing ICE activities could dissuade immigrants from reporting crime.  

“We don’t want somebody to get victimized and get picked on, whether they are illegal or not,” he said. “Nobody deserves to be a victim of a crime.”  

Most of the ICE operations have been focused west of New Orleans in Jefferson Parish, which includes Gretna and other 287(g)-participant agencies. Last year, 55 percent of the Parish voted for Trump, while 82 percent in neighboring Orleans Parish went for Kamala Harris.  

The largest city in Jefferson Parish, Kenner, with about one-third of the population consisting of Latinos, has seen its police department partner with ICE based on requests of local business owners, including immigrants.  

“We had members of our community pleading with us to keep our community safe,” Chief Keith Conley said, noting the gang activity that had its roots in Central America as being of particular concern, especially for those residents who had fled that region to escape the violence.  

“They saw the ways of their home countries coming here. When I have business leaders coming to me, I have to respond,” Conley continued.  

Conley said Kenner has experienced “some pretty heinous crimes” over the past several years, including murder and sexual assaults.  

“And we weren’t getting much cooperation” from federal officials, Conley said. “It was a failure at the top.”  

In September, Gov. Landry asked President Trump to deploy the National Guard to New Orleans, citing an increase in violent crime. Police and city leaders, however, argued that crime has decreased, and federal support isn’t needed. Other cities, including Washington, D.C., have made the same claim; however, they were found to be engaged in a bit of creative statistic-bending.  

In Jefferson Parish, however, Conley and county residents have praised the Trump administration’s deployment of federal agents into the region. The Post reported that outside a Lowe’s in Metairie, where ICE agents were spotted earlier this month, Howard Jones, 71, said he supported the collaboration between local and federal agencies.  

“I’m all for people being deported who are not here legally,” said Jones, a self-described moderate who voted for Trump three times in 2016, 2020, and last year.  

Conversely, Gloria Rodriguez, a Mexican national who works in construction, said local police shouldn’t become involved. She said that although she’s a legal permanent resident and her husband and 18-year-old son, who were in the truck with her, are American citizens, they carry their passports and immigration paperwork in case federal agents stop them.  

“They should not cooperate with immigration, just do their job and get criminals off of the streets instead of hardworking people,” Rodriguez said, also buying into the mainstream narrative that U.S. citizens are being scooped up with abandon by ICE agents.  

In New Orleans, however, officials have resisted cooperating with ICE, which could put officials in criminal jeopardy. The police department has adopted a policy of prohibiting officers from assisting federal immigration enforcement except under specialized circumstances. That policy resulted from a 2013 federal consent decree that addressed a history of unconstitutional practices, including racial profiling.  

Police Superintendent Anne Kirpatrick, who bungled the New Year’s Day terror attack in the city earlier this year, insists that immigration is a civil issue, not a criminal one, and that police won’t enforce civil laws. Instead, she wants to ensure that immigrants, including illegals, “are not going to get hurt and our community is not in danger.”  

In the New Year’s Day attack, a truck plowed through orange cones and plowed into the crowd of revelers, killing 14 people. And, despite warnings of the vulnerability of the French Quarter to such an attack, nothing was done, according to CNN. A 2019 report recommended that bollards be fixed and improved “immediately.” Also, portable steel barriers were in the down position during the New Year’s Eve celebrations.  

Kirkpatrick, who more represents a matronly grandmother than the police chief of a major city, was unaware that the city owned so-called “archer barriers,” which could have secured the area more effectively. 

“I didn’t know about them, but we have them. And so we have been able now to put them out,” she told reporters a day late and a dollar short after the deadly attack.  

Kirkpatrick may run afoul of the new state law, and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R) has encouraged her to have NOPD “fully cooperate” with federal immigration authorities. Murrill warned that the NOPD policies “appear to conflict with current state law,” while adding that any thwarting of federal immigration efforts could be interpreted as obstruction of justice.  

Earlier this month, a spokesman for the police department said, “NOPD is not involved in, informed of, or responsible for any enforcement activity conducted by ICE, DHS, or U.S. Border Patrol.”  

The statement continued, adding that the department’s role “is to enforce state and municipal criminal laws. We do not handle or participate in federal immigration enforcement.”