The next stop on President Trump’s immigration crackdown will be New Orleans, and it’s expected to start as early as December 1st. As many as 250 Border Patrol agents will be in the region for up to two months, fanning out into commercial areas and neighborhoods. Congressman Troy Carter calls it a political stunt wrapped in badges and guns.
“These are militarized federal agents who are not trained in municipal laws, not trained in de-escalation in our neighborhoods. Do not know our communities, our culture, our people,” Carter said.
Carter says Border Patrol agents do not bring a sense of security; instead, they strike fear in communities.
“In Chicago, the reports of helicopter deployments and tactics that look more like a war zone than a neighborhood,” Carter said.
In prior operations, Border Patrol agents have been recorded on video detaining U.S. citizens. Former New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas says those may have been instances where someone was interfering with a law enforcement operation.
“Those people who are not illegal immigrants, however, have broken the law of obstructing my investigation and arrest of someone who has an order of deportation or warrant,” Serpas explained.
Serpas says the reason that Border Patrol agents wear masks to conceal their identities is for their own safety and the safety of their families.
“Young people running around, taking videos and putting those pictures on the internet, and looking up who those people’s family members are. What a cowardly way to say, ‘I don’t like what the police are doing, I don’t like what the feds are doing,"” Serpas said.
