WASHINGTON, Dec 3 (Reuters) – U.S. immigration officials kicked off an operation in New Orleans to arrest immigrants in the U.S. illegally, federal officials said on Wednesday, making it the latest city to be targeted by President Donald Trump’s crackdown.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the operation would target criminal offenders who had been released from local custody due to city policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Trump, a Republican, has ordered such operations in Democratic-led cities across the U.S., including Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., in a bid to drive deportations to record levels.
Residents and local officials in cities targeted by the immigration crackdown have pushed back, saying it has swept in many people with no criminal record and has used heavy-handed tactics that endangered residents.
The operation in New Orleans was expected to run through the end of the year but its scope remains unclear. Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that the National Guard would be deployed to the southern city in several weeks.
Some residents in New Orleans were already bracing for the possibility they could be subjected to profiling tactics and detained as part of the crackdown.
In one family-owned restaurant, a woman assembled makeshift beds on Tuesday, so family members could sleep there to avoid potentially being profiled by federal agents while traveling between home and work.
Last month a federal judge terminated a 2013 consent decree that had limited the ability of the New Orleans Police Department to assist federal immigration enforcement.
Still, New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said in late November that the city would not enforce federal immigration law.
The U.S. Department of Justice labeled New Orleans a “sanctuary city” in a list published in August.
The action in New Orleans, with a population of around 384,000, follows a Border Patrol-led operation in Charlotte, North Carolina.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson and Katharine JacksonEditing by Doina Chiacu and Frances Kerry)
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