A New Orleans city council meeting descended into chaos Thursday when anti-ICE protesters stormed council chambers, shouting down officials and clashing with police over the launch of a major federal immigration enforcement surge now underway across southeast Louisiana.
The outburst came one day after the Department of Homeland Security announced Operation Catahoula Crunch, a two-month federal initiative deploying 250 Border Patrol agents to New Orleans and surrounding areas. The operation, referred to by protesters as “Swamp Sweep,” has intensified backlash from immigrant rights groups and triggered growing unrest at city hall.
Protesters began gathering outside City Hall around 9:30 a.m., holding signs, chanting through megaphones and denouncing the operation. When officers later allowed demonstrators into the council chambers, tensions escalated immediately.
Several protesters marched toward the podium and attempted to speak, but council members cut them off, saying their comments were unrelated to the agenda item. The room erupted with shouts of “Shame!” and “Coward!” echoing through the chamber, until council members abruptly suspended the meeting and walked out, leaving protesters to take over the room.
DHS LAUNCHES NEW IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN OPERATION IN NEW ORLEANS
Roughly 30 to 40 protesters refused to comply with repeated police orders to leave. Officers began escorting people out, and, in one heated moment, an officer physically lifted a protester and carried him from the chamber as others screamed in outrage.
“Shame on you. He’s a peaceful protester,” one woman yelled. “You don’t drag people out like that — it’s criminal.”
Another protester confronted officers near the chamber doors, yelling, “Our people are under attack, and you drag him out? Who do you work for?”
DHS LAUNCHING MASSIVE IMMIGRATION OPERATION IN LOUISIANA, MISSISSIPPI: ‘SWAMP SWEEP’
Outside barricades, activists flipped off officers and shouted obscenities while police held their positions behind a metal gate. As of Thursday afternoon, no arrests or detentions had been reported.
Inside the chamber, protesters broke into a sustained chant, shouting, “No ICE! No KKK! No racist USA!”
The Department of Homeland Security says Operation Catahoula Crunch is aimed at removing “criminal illegal aliens roaming free thanks to sanctuary policies” that prevent local authorities from honoring ICE arrest detainers.
WATCH: Anti-ICE protesters dragged out of New Orleans City Hall
In a sharply worded statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said sanctuary policies “endanger American communities by releasing illegal criminal aliens and forcing DHS law enforcement to risk their lives to remove criminal illegal aliens that should have never been put back on the streets.”
She added that it was “asinine that these monsters were released back onto New Orleans streets to COMMIT MORE CRIMES and create more victims.”
McLaughlin also emphasized that Operation Catahoula Crunch is focused on offenders she described as “violent criminals who were released after arrest for home invasion, armed robbery, grand theft auto and rape,” adding, “under President Trump and Secretary Noem, we are restoring law and order for the American people.”
AS ICE READIES ‘SWAMP SWEEP,’ MISSISSIPPI PLEDGES TO AID — NOT BLOCK — FEDERAL CRACKDOWN
Thursday’s confrontation came after a demonstration Monday outside City Hall, where dozens gathered to oppose the impending sweep. According to local outlet WWNO, Monday’s event featured emotional speeches accusing DHS of retraumatizing immigrant communities.
One demonstrator told the crowd “We were hurting, we were abandoned and, instead of help, we got soldiers with rifles,” adding the community needs “housing, health care, real jobs, not soldiers.”
Another protester grew emotional while shouting about a deceased family member, saying, “You can’t crush the flame of someone who’s already gone.”
Organizers on Monday accused federal authorities and local police of “targeting vulnerable communities” and vowed to continue demonstrating “for as long as Operation Swamp Sweep remains in effect.”
WWNO reported that Monday’s event was organized by the New Orleans Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression with support from Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Indivisible NOLA, Union Migrante and others.
DHS has given no end date beyond confirming the operation is expected to run for roughly two months.
