New Orleans Resists ICE Invasion Despite Surveillance and State Repression

This story was co-published with Truthout.

When concerned residents of the New Orleans metro area stepped out into the streets with their whistles and phone cameras over the weekend, ready to protest and document the Trump administration’s unwelcome assault on immigrant communities, they faced both widespread digital surveillance by state and federal authorities and a vague state law that makes hindering federal immigration enforcement a crime punishable by up to one year of hard labor in a Louisiana prison.   

Championed by Republicans and signed by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, Act 399 went into effect August 1 and now looms over New Orleans as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol continue their latest invasion of a Democrat-led city as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. The new law makes “any act intended to hinder, delay, prevent, or otherwise interfere with federal immigration enforcement” a crime.

On December 3, the ACLU of Louisiana filed a lawsuit challenging Act 399 on behalf of a local group, which stopped conducting know-your-rights trainings after organizers feared they could be criminalized under the law’s broad language. Louisiana’s attorney general conceded in a court filing that Act 399 covers “only actual obstruction of justice—conduct, especially violent conduct,” and not constitutionally protected speech.  

The ACLU of Louisiana dropped the lawsuit on December 5 after the judge and both sides agreed on the attorney general’s interpretation the law. While the lawsuit focused on the First Amendment rights of groups holding community defense trainings for immigrants and their families, the clarification also offered a green light for activists to deploy resistance tactics seen in other cities targeted by ICE. 

Videos shared online show residents gathering for a series of protests over the past week against ICE deployments in New Orleans that began on December 3. In suburbs like Kenner, a working class city with a large immigrant population and a local police chief who works directly with ICE, activists on the ground said caravans of vehicles coordinated by ICE watch activists followed ICE patrols with whistles and bullhorns, warning anyone who could be profiled as undocumented that federal agents were nearby. Coalitions organized know-your-rights trainings for documenting immigration arrests and set up a hotline for reporting ICE activity to a network of neighborhood response groups. Businesses across the city posted signs refusing entry to ICE and Border Patrol. 

“What we are hearing from our clients is exactly what we have seen in other cities—folks are being arrested indiscriminately, targeted for the color of their skin, the language that they speak, the location where they are working,” said Homero Lopez, legal director of Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy in New Orleans, in a press conference with local leaders on December 5.  

Meanwhile, a digital surveillance fusion center shared by federal law enforcement and state police is keeping tabs on the online activity of residents and protesters as ICE and Border Patrol fan out across the New Orleans metro area, according to records obtained by the Associated Press. The records showed agents monitoring message boards and social media posts “around the clock” to provide updates on the community’s response and criticisms of the immigration crackdown in New Orleans. 

“Online opinions still remain mixed, with some supporting the operations while others are against them,” noted an intelligence briefing circulated early Sunday to law enforcement and obtained by the Associated Press. Previous intelligence 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.”

A local activist who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation from law enforcement said many immigrant families are unable to work and shop for basic necessities due to the crackdown and concerns over racial profiling. 

However, New Orleanians have survived hurricanes and other disasters together, and already existing mutual aid networks sprang into action to deliver groceries and help people access medical care and other needs. “People are getting rides, people are getting food, people are being accompanied—that is not an issue because people know how to do mutual aid here,” the activist told Truthout.

Jeremy Jong, a staff attorney with the immigrant rights group Al Otro Lado in New Orleans, said both Act 399 and the digital surveillance are designed to stifle speech and dissent. 

“It appears that there is a real chilling effect,” Jong said in an interview. “Obviously the government surveilling essentially everyone is super concerning. It’s frankly infuriating that tax money is going to this fusion center that just monitors what everyone is saying on social media.” 

Jong said many people in southern Louisiana may have heard about Act 399 or a separate state law restricting the filming of police officers—the latter was temporarily blocked by a federal court in January—but they may not understand how these attempts at repression impact their constitutional rights. 

“We want to tell people they have the First Amendment right to go out there and blow a whistle and follow them around and record them—these are all things that are essentially protected by the First Amendment,” Jong told Truthout. “But we get a lot of questions like, ‘but I don’t know, it could be illegal.’” 

Jong said he recently spoke to members of a church in the New Orleans area who were worried that they could be prosecuted under Act 399 if they refused to let ICE agents enter the church without a warrant. Jong noted that ICE still needs a warrant to enter private property under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which protects everyone in the United States against unreasonable search and seizure. Shortly after taking office, Trump ended a longstanding policy that prohibited ICE from making arrests at schools, churches, and other sensitive public locations. 

“It’s designed to scare people into giving up rights that they otherwise have,” Jong said. 

Steadfast in their repudiation of Trump’s deportation efforts—as well as of Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, who has been heckled by protesters and workers in viral videos as he patrols New Orleans—Crescent City residents are not easily intimidated. Jong      pointed out that the Trump administration’s stated goal is to arrest 5,000 undocumented people in the New Orleans area, but the records obtained by the Associated Press show only 38 arrests were made during the first two days of the operation. 

Of the 38 people arrested, only about a third had a criminal record, further undermining ICE’s debunked claims that immigration sweeps are focused on public safety threats. The total number of people arrested for civil immigration violations in New Orleans has not been publicly reported despite demands from city leaders. Masked ICE and Border Patrol agents also ignored pleas from city leaders not to conceal their identities in public.

 Jong said people across the metro area are asserting their rights when confronted by federal agents, making it more difficult for ICE and Border Patrol to make indiscriminate arrests at Home Depots and construction sites, for example. 

“People can’t go to work, people can’t make rent, can’t go to the doctor’s office—that’s terrible, but one silver lining is it gives us the opportunity to talk to people and say, ‘no, you have rights, and if everyone asserts their rights, these terrible calamities can be resisted,’” Jong said. “It’s really nice to see people feel empowered, to just say no, to withdraw their consent, because this system depends on people being scared, people unthinkingly complying.”