State and federal authorities are closely tracking online criticism and protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in New Orleans, monitoring message boards around the clock for threats to agents while compiling regular updates on public “sentiment” surrounding the arrests, according to law enforcement records reviewed by the Associated Press.
The intelligence gathering comes even as officials have released few details about the first arrests made last week as part of “Catahoula Crunch”, prompting calls for greater transparency from local officials who say they have been kept in the dark about virtually every aspect of the operation.
“Online opinions still remain mixed, with some supporting the operations while others are against them,” said a briefing circulated early on Sunday to law enforcement officials. Earlier bulletins noted “a combination of groups urging the public to record ICE and Border Patrol” as well as “additional locations where agents can find immigrants”.
Immigration authorities have insisted the sweeps are targeted at “criminal illegal aliens”. But the law enforcement records detail criminal histories for less than a third of the 38 people arrested in the first two days of the operation.
Local leaders told the AP those numbers – which law enforcement officials were admonished not to distribute to the media – undermined the stated aim of the roundup. They also expressed concern that the online surveillance could chill free speech as authorities threaten to charge anyone interfering with immigration enforcement.
“It confirms what we already knew – this was not about public safety, it’s about stoking chaos and fear and terrorizing communities,” said the Louisiana state senator Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who represents New Orleans. “It’s furthering a sick narrative of stereotypes that immigrants are violent.”
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to questions about the intelligence gathering and referred the AP to a prior news release touting “dozens of arrests”. The agency has not released an accounting of the detainees taken into custody or their criminal histories.
The DHS has publicly detailed only six arrests stemming from the operation – all people with criminal histories – including a man they vaguely said was convicted of “homicide” and another convicted of sexual assault. The agency, which has several hundred agents on the ground in south-east Louisiana, has said it aims to make at least 5,000 arrests in the region over an operation expected to last up to two months.
“Americans should be able to live without fear of violent criminal illegal aliens harming them, their families or their neighbors,” the DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said.
DHS and Republican leaders have framed the crackdown as targeting the most violent offenders. But the records reviewed by the AP identify only nine of the 38 people arrested in the first days as having criminal histories that rose beyond traffic violations – information the intelligence bulletins warn “should not be distributed to the media”.
The New Orleans city council president, JP Morrell, said the stated goals of the operation to arrest violent offenders did not align with the reality of what is taking place.
“There’s literally no information being given to the city of New Orleans whatsoever,” Morrell said. “If the goal was for them to come here and augment existing law enforcement, to pursue violent criminals or people with extensive criminal histories, why wouldn’t you be more transparent about who you’ve arrested and why?”
Morrell and other officials have said the crackdown appears to be a dragnet focused on people with brown skin, citing viral videos of encounters such as masked agents chasing a 22-year-old US citizen returning home from the grocery store.
Law enforcement officials have been carefully tracking such footage and public reaction. “For some supporters, the videos with sounds of children crying in the background as their parents are placed under arrest, is weighing heavy on their hearts,” one briefing stated.
The records also shed new light on cooperation among state and federal authorities in an operation welcomed by Louisiana’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry. Both the FBI and Customs and Border Protection (CPB) have stationed agents at the Louisiana State Analytical and Fusion Exchange, an intelligence and data sharing center that is closely following discussions on the online forum Reddit that local residents have used to exchange information about the immigration raids.
One briefing noted that some “have gone so far as to accuse agents of racially profiling Hispanic areas specifically”. Another flagged social media posts suggesting agents “are not keeping with the mission of targeting criminal immigrants only”. And a third pointed out that critics of the raids “bring up past hurricanes and the work done by immigrants” in their aftermath.
“The chatter is slower during the night, mainly just commenting on posts from earlier in the day,” one of the briefings states. “Once daylight arrives and agencies are back out, the chatter and new posts will pick back up.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
