With the immigration crackdown underway in parts of Louisiana right now, State Representative Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, is warning residents to be careful about what they post on social media about U.S. Customs and Border Protection sweeps.
And that is backed-up by new reporting from the Associated Press, which reveals state and federal authorities are closely tracking online criticism and protests against the 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.
This news comes amidst few details being released publicly by authorities after the first week of operations in the crackdown.
But in a statement released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that kicked off the operation last Wednesday, December 3, 2025, the agency announced more than 250 federal agents are targeting criminal illegal aliens roaming free on Louisiana streets, “thanks to sanctuary policies that force local authorities to ignore U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest detainers,” with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem describing some of the criminal illegal aliens they’re targeting “the worst of the worst.” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin says such decisions risk the lives of the public and of law enforcement. “It is asinine that these monsters were released back onto New Orleans streets to commit more crimes and create more victims.”
As Louisiana Public Radio reports, Rep. Landry, who is also an attorney, says federal agents are also closely monitoring social media posts that pertain to the “Operation Catahoula Crunch,” as dubbed by the Trump administration, primarily taking place in southeast Louisiana.
Critics have labeled some of the government's monitoring, surveilling, communicating and arresting techniques in its immigration crackdown as "Orwellian", a literally reference to the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-four (1949), written by George Orwell, the pen name used by author Eric Arthur Blair. The story chronicles a fictional society in the grips of a repressive totalitarian regime, which utilizes propaganda to manipulate the population, and employs surveillance to capture and then torture disobedient citizens.
Landry, a Democrat, says the diverse city of New Orleans was chosen on purpose with a goal of making 5,000 arrests. This is a city that's come back from so many different disasters for hundreds of years now and we stand on our principles and if they're able to break the spirit here, I think the consequences will be far reaching.
Landry stresses that it isn’t local police conducting sweeps but it’s federal agents and you could be in danger of being detained.” “Online opinions still remain mixed, with some supporting the operations while others are against them,” said a briefing circulated early Sunday to law enforcement. As for the AP reports of online monitoring, they say 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.”
