New Orleans — It’s 5:30 a.m. just outside New Orleans, and a group of agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Drug Enforcement Administration just pulled over and arrested a man as part of what have become daily targeted operations in the New Orleans metro area.
During this particular operation which ICE invited CBS News to view, the goal is to detain and deport three different immigrants they say are undocumented and were recently charged with a variety of crimes.
“We’re working a lot more on our caseload now,” Brian Acuna, an ICE deputy field officer involved with the operation, told CBS News. “We’re looking to take the worst of the worst off the streets.”
ICE says these operations are a top priority, and they come as the new Trump administration has immediately intensified efforts to target illegal immigration and carry out mass deportations. This week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said its immigration crackdown has resulted in more than 8,000 arrests since President Trump’s inauguration.
Steven Holfer, special agent in charge of the DEA’s New Orleans Field Division, is happy to help, even if it means putting other tasks on hold. He says during the last two weeks, the DEA has been assisting ICE with its detention and deportation operations “every day.”
The early-morning traffic stop in Metairie, Lousiana, just 20 minutes outside New Orleans, had been planned after careful surveillance, according to ICE agents on the operation. ICE agents detained one man charged with rape, as well as another man they say is undocumented who just happened to be in the car. ICE describes this type of arrest as “collateral.”
“If we encounter other folks as we do this, our supervisors are going to make case-by-case decisions,” Acuna said.
That worries 25-year-old Gracey, who asked CBS News to only use her first name for fear of retaliation. Originally from Honduras, she says she has committed no crime since crossing the border five years ago.
Gracey has received some temporary protections to live and work in the U.S. while her immigration case is still pending.
Her 3-year-old daughter is a U.S. citizen, but her 8-year-old daughter is undocumented. She tells CBS News she is afraid she will never see her children again if forced to leave the U.S.
“What is going to happen to my family?” she asked. “(If) I am going to be separated from my daughter, I don’t have any options for her, that is my fear.”
Right now, there are more than 10,000 non-citizens living in New Orleans, according to the 2023 U.S. Census, and it’s estimated that most are undocumented. But a Louisiana state law passed just last year bans the very policies that make New Orleans a sanctuary city, the only one in the Gulf states.
Acuna says New Orleans’ sanctuary city policies have been problematic for the ICE’s New Orleans Field Office.
“All the other sheriffs are cooperative except for the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office,” Acuna said. “You don’t have time to be frustrated, because ICE has to take our time and investigate and expend more resources to go back out into the community, and at times, arrest a person a second or a third time when the sheriff’s office refuses to cooperate with our detainer.”
Acuna says they are evaluating their options to get better cooperation.
“We’re working on it every day,” Acuna said. “This has been an issue here in this area since 2013.”
The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office declined an interview with CBS News, but Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams says the parish only cooperates with ICE in cases of undocumented immigrants accused of violent crimes. Williams sees New Orleans as continuing to follow sanctuary city policies.
“Yeah, I don’t think the tolerance level, or the way that New Orleans shows love is going to change, simply because of a change in the administration,” Williams said.
Gracey hopes there’s no change in being able to keep her family together, and despite everything, she says she still believes she is “in the right place.”
“Even though the system, part of the system, doesn’t support us, they don’t want us here, there are a lot of very good people here,” Gracey said. “And I feel like I’m in the right place.”
