NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Trump administration officials overseeing the immigration crackdown launched this week in New Orleans are aiming to make 5,000 arrests, a target that some city leaders who oppose the operation say is unrealistic and would require detainining more than just violent offenders.
It's an ambitious goal that would surpass the number of arrests during a two-month enforcement blitz this fall around Chicago, a region with a much bigger immigrant population than New Orleans. Records tracking the first weeks of the Chicago operation also showed most arrestees didn’t have a violent criminal record.
In Los Angeles — the first major battleground in President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration plan — roughly 5,000 people were arrested over the summer in an area where about a third of LA County's roughly 10 million residents are foreign-born.
“There is no rational basis that a sweep of New Orleans, or the surrounding parishes, would ever yield anywhere near 5,000 criminals, let alone ones that are considered ‘violent’ by any definition,” New Orleans City Council President J.P. Morrell said Thursday.
Census Bureau figures show the New Orleans metro area had a foreign-born population of almost 100,000 residents last year, and that just under 60% were not U.S. citizens.
“The amount of violent crime attributed to illegal immigrants is negligible,” Morrell said, pointing out that crime in New Orleans is at historic lows.
Violent crimes, including murders, rapes and robberies, have fallen by 12% through October compared to a year ago, from a total of 2,167 violent crimes to 1,897 this year, according to New Orleans police statistics.
Federal agents in marked and unmarked vehicles began spreading out across New Orleans and its suburbs Wednesday, making arrests in home improvement store parking lots and patrolling neighborhoods with large immigrant populations.
Alejandra Vasquez, who runs a social media page in New Orleans that reports the whereabouts of federal agents, said she has received a flood of messages, photos and video since the operations began.
“My heart is so broken,” Vasquez said. “They came here to take criminals and they are taking our working people. They are not here doing what they are supposed to do. They are taking families.”
Several hundred agents from Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are participating in the two-month operation dubbed “Catahoula Crunch.”
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is from Louisiana, is among the state's Republicans supporting the crackdown. “Democrats’ sanctuary city policies have failed — making our American communities dangerous. The people of our GREAT city deserve better, and help is now on the ground,” Johnson posted on social media.
About two dozen protesters were removed from a New Orleans City Council meeting Thursday after chants of “Shame” broke out. Police officers ordered protesters to leave the building, with some pushed or physically carried out by officers.
Planning documents obtained last month by The Associated Press show the crackdown is intended to cover southeast Louisiana and into Mississippi.
Homeland Security Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said agents are going after immigrants who were released after arrests for violent crimes.
"In just 24 hours on the ground, our law enforcement officers have arrested violent criminals with rap sheets that include homicide, kidnapping, child abuse, robbery, theft, and assault,” McLaughlin said Thursday in a statement. Border Patrol and immigration officials have not responded to requests for details, including how many have been arrested so far.
She told CNN on Wednesday that "we will continue whether that will be 5,000 arrests or beyond.”
To come close to reaching their target numbers in New Orleans, immigrant rights group fear federal agents will set their sights on a much broader group.
New Orleans City councilmember Lesli Harris said “there are nowhere near 5,000 violent offenders in our region” whom Border Patrol could arrest.
“What we’re seeing instead are mothers, teenagers, and workers being detained during routine check-ins, from their homes and places of work,” Harris said. “Immigration violations are civil matters, not criminal offenses, and sweeping up thousands of residents who pose no threat will destabilize families, harm our economy.”
During the “Operation Midway Blitz” crackdown in Chicago that began in September, federal immigration agents arrested more than 4,000 people across the city and its many suburbs, dipping into Indiana.
Homeland Security officials heralded efforts to nab violent criminals, posting dozens of pictures on social media of people appearing to have criminal histories and lacking legal permission to be in the U.S. But public records tracking the first weeks of the Chicago push show most arrestees didn’t have a violent criminal record.
Of roughly 1,900 people arrested in the Chicago area from early September through the middle of October — the latest data available — nearly 300 or about 15% had criminal convictions on their records, according to ICE arrest data from the University of California Berkeley Deportation Data Project analyzed by The Associated Press.
The vast majority of those convictions were for traffic offenses, misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies, the data showed.
New Orleans, whose international flavor comes from its long history of French, Spanish, African and Native American cultures, has seen a new wave of immigrants from places in Central and South America and Asia.
Across all of Louisiana, there were more than 145,000 foreign-born noncitizens, according to the Census Bureau. While those numbers don't break down how many residents of the state were in the country illegally, the Pew Research Center estimated the number at 110,000 people in 2023.
This story has been corrected to show that about a third of LA County’s 10 million residents are foreign-born, not 10 million total.
Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press journalists Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Aaron Kessler in Washington, D.C.; and Michael Schneider in Orlando, Florida, contributed.
U.S. Border Patrol Commander at large Gregory Bovino, 1st right, walks on the street in New Orleans, La.,Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
U.S. Border Patrol agents stand on the street in New Orleans, La.,Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
U.S. Border Patrol Commander at large Gregory Bovino, 3rd left, walks on the street in New Orleans, La.,Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
POINTE-AU-CHIEN, La. (AP) — Cherie Matherne looked out into Bayou Pointe au Chien, wide enough for several boats to pass through. In the distance, a stand of dead trees marked where saltwater comes and goes during storm-driven flooding.
It wasn't always this way. The bayou was once shallower and just wide enough for a small boat to pass. Land that cattle once roamed is submerged now, and elders tell stories of tree canopies once so lush they nearly shut out the day.
The delicate lattice of Louisiana's coastline has been steadily retreating for generations. As it does, the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe and other Indigenous people are fighting to protect what's left and to adapt to their changing environment. That includes a painstaking effort to build makeshift reefs that slow erosion and sturdier homes and buildings to better withstand storms.
“We want to be able to make it so that people can stay here for as long as possible, for as long as they want to stay,” said Matherne, who as the tribe's director of daily operations helped coordinate its response to the erosion threat.
They hope to avoid the fate of the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation, a nearby tribe that was forced to move three years ago about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north from the encroaching Gulf of Mexico. Isle de Jean Charles — their island home southwest of New Orleans — has lost 98% of its land.
Louisiana's coast has been steadily retreating for several reasons.
Levees along the Mississippi River have severed the natural flow of land-creating sand, silt and clay, starving wetlands of sediment they need to survive. Canals have allowed saltwater to flow into wetlands, killing freshwater vegetation that holds them together and accelerating erosion. Groundwater pumping is causing land to sink, and planet-warming emissions from burning coal, oil and gas are fueling hurricanes and accelerating sea level rise.
Since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost about 2,000 square miles (5,180 square kilometers) of land — sometimes fast, sometimes slow. A U.S. Geological Survey analysis found that when erosion was at its worst, a football field's worth of coastal wetlands was disappearing every 34 minutes.
It’s a difficult problem to solve without being able to count on the Mississippi River to periodically drop sediment to maintain the land, said Sam Bentley, geology professor at Louisiana State University.
“That’s going to displace ecosystems, it’s going to displace communities, it’s going to isolate infrastructure that’s along the coastline," Bentley said. "And there are going to be a lot of changes that are very hard to deal with.”
Indigenous burial and cultural sites risk eroding, and traditional ways of life — shrimping, fishing and subsistence farming — are under pressure. Without action, researchers estimate the state could lose up to 3,000 square miles (7,770 square kilometers) — an area larger than Delaware — over the next 50 years.
Reefs built from oyster shells are one attempt to stem the erosion.
The oysters are collected from restaurants, stuffed into bags and stacked just off shore to form the reefs. The program, launched in 2014 by the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, has recycled more than 16 million pounds (7.3 million kilograms) of shells in that time. That's enough to protect about 1.5 miles (about 2.4 kilometers) of shoreline.
Since the Pointe-au-Chien tribe had a 400-foot (123-meter) reef built in 2019 to protect a historic mound, the coalition has measured a 50% reduction in the rate of land loss where the reefs were built, said coalition spokesman James Karst.
But there are limits to what reclaimed oyster shells can do. There just aren't enough shells for Louisiana's estimated 7,721-mile (12,426 kilometer) coastline, said Karst, and moving them is expensive, so they have to be strategic. Many reefs they've built protect sites of cultural importance. They're also limited to areas where the water is salty enough for the oyster shells to last.
Their work might seem like a tiny drop in the bucket, "but when you are losing land at the rate you are,” Karst said, “you need all the drops in the bucket you can get.”
Some of the coalition's most recent work came about 30 miles to the southwest of the Pointe-au-Chien's land, in a project with the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe that wrapped up in November. It was built at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, a location easy for the public to see and learn about oyster reefs, said Chief Devon Parfait.
When Hurricane Ida hit in 2021, it made landfall in the region with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (241 kph).
Scores of homes in and around Pointe-au-Chien were damaged or destroyed. Some families moved inland or left the area entirely, but most came back. With help from groups like the Lowlander Center, a nonprofit working with Indigenous and coastal communities facing risks such as climate threats and land loss, the tribe is rebuilding in a stronger way.
Homes are higher off the ground and fortified with hurricane straps, heavy-duty windows and doors that can take pummeling winds and waters. Electrical equipment is elevated to stay above storm surge. They've rebuilt or repaired 13 homes; about five new homes are planned and they're raising money to fortify the remaining dozen or so.
“We know that doing just one home in a community doesn’t make the community safe. It’s only safe if the whole community is included in raising that level of safety,” said Kristina Peterson, director and co-founder of the Lowlander Center.
But challenges remain. The state-recognized tribes have struggled to get federal recognition, they said, and without it, it's hard to get grants and other help from the federal government. Instead, they rely on partnerships with organizations and institutions.
The Trump administration's funding cuts are also making it harder for tribes to meet their goals.
The Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw applied for a federal grant to build a community center stocked with food, water and renewable energy in case of emergencies that's designed to hold up during hurricanes. When cuts happened, their application was tabled.
Similarly, the Pointe-au-Chien applied for money to install solar panels on every home, but they're not hopeful their application will get approved.
Pointe-au-Chien elder Theresa Dardar said much has changed in the five decades she's lived there. The pond behind her home has gotten bigger, and she could once identify lakes Chien and Felicity. Now it’s just one large body of water. People once hunted deer and walked through wooded areas.
What hasn't changed is the quiet and the close ties. Everybody knows everybody. And people still fish like generations did before them.
“This is where our ancestors were, and we feel like we would be abandoning them” to leave, Dardar said. “We have sacred sites that we still visit.”
By slowing erosion and building more homes, the tribe hopes younger families will move to Pointe-au-Chien. They also know that protecting their lands from going underwater will protect regions further inland.
As Dardar put it: “We're the buffer."
The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
Volunteers fill mesh containments with oyster shells during a reef barrier project organized by the Coalition To Restore Coastal Louisiana in Cocodrie, La., Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
An egret sits on a tree that died from salt water intrusion, showing the fragility of the ecosystem, during a reef barrier project organized by the Coalition To Restore Coastal Louisiana in Cocodrie, La., Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Volunteers fill mesh containments with oyster shells during a reef barrier project organized by the Coalition To Restore Coastal Louisiana in Cocodrie, La., Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribal Chief Devon Parfait scoops oyster shell into a bucket during a reef barrier project organized by the Coalition To Restore Coastal Louisiana in Cocodrie, La., Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A volunteer pours oyster shells into a wire containment during a reef barrier project organized by the Coalition To Restore Coastal Louisiana in Cocodrie, La., Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Volunteers set up wire mesh containment during a reef barrier project organized by the Coalition To Restore Coastal Louisiana in Cocodrie, La., Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Volunteers fill buckets from piles of oyster shells during a reef barrier project organized by the Coalition To Restore Coastal Louisiana in Cocodrie, La., Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
FILE - An oil sheen drifts between a sunken shrimp boat and pieces of a destroyed home along Bayou Pointe au Chien in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida in Pointe-aux-Chenes, La., Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
Volunteers maneuver a small barge during a reef barrier project organized by the Coalition To Restore Coastal Louisiana in Cocodrie, La., Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Volunteers fill buckets from piles of oyster shells during a reef barrier project organized by the Coalition To Restore Coastal Louisiana in Cocodrie, La., Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Volunteers fill mesh containments with oyster shells during a reef barrier project organized by the Coalition To Restore Coastal Louisiana in Cocodrie, La., Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
