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A New Orleans city council meeting descended into chaos Thursday as anti-ICE protesters stormed the chamber, shouting down officers and clashing with police over the launch of a significant federal immigration enforcement surge now underway throughout southeast Louisiana.
The outburst got here at some point after the Division of Homeland Safety introduced “Operation Catahoula Crunch,” a two-month federal initiative deploying 250 Border Patrol brokers to New Orleans and surrounding areas. The operation, referred to by protesters as “Swamp Sweep,” has intensified backlash from immigrant-rights teams and triggered rising unrest at metropolis corridor.
Protesters began gathering outdoors Metropolis Corridor round 9:30 a.m., holding indicators, chanting by way of megaphones, and denouncing the operation. When officers later allowed demonstrators into the council chambers, tensions escalated instantly.
A number of protesters marched towards the rostrum and tried to talk, however council members lower them off, saying their feedback have been unrelated to the agenda merchandise. The room erupted, with shouts of “Disgrace!” and “Coward!” echoing by way of the chamber, till council members abruptly suspended the assembly and walked out, leaving protesters to take over the room.
DHS LAUNCHES NEW IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN OPERATION IN NEW ORLEANS
Anti-ICE and Border Patrol agitators are eliminated by New Orleans Police Division officers after disrupting a council assembly at Metropolis Corridor in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Dec. 4, 2025. (Adam GRAY / AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
Roughly 30 to 40 protesters refused to adjust to repeated police orders to go away. Officers started escorting folks out, and in a single heated second, an officer bodily lifted a protester and carried him from the chamber as others screamed in outrage.
“Disgrace on you! He’s a peaceable protester!” one girl yelled. “You don’t drag folks out like that — it’s legal!”
One other protester confronted officers close to the chamber doorways, yelling, “Our individuals are underneath assault and also you drag him out? Who do you’re employed for?”
DHS LAUNCHING MASSIVE IMMIGRATION OPERATION IN LOUISIANA, MISSISSIPPI: ‘SWAMP SWEEP’
New Orleans cops carry a person out of metropolis corridor after he participated in a protest in opposition to the deployment of federal brokers within the metropolis throughout a metropolis council assembly on Dec. 4, 2025, in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Ryan Murphy/Getty Pictures)
Outdoors the barricades, activists flipped off officers and shouted obscenities whereas police held their positions behind a metallic gate. As of Thursday afternoon, no arrests or detentions had been reported.
Contained in the chamber, protesters broke right into a sustained chant, shouting, “No ICE! No KKK! No racist USA!”
The Division of Homeland Safety says Operation Catahoula Crunch is geared toward eradicating “legal unlawful aliens roaming free due to sanctuary insurance policies” that forestall native authorities from honoring ICE arrest detainers.
WATCH: Anti-ICE protesters dragged out of New Orleans Metropolis Corridor
In a sharply worded assertion, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin mentioned sanctuary insurance policies “endanger American communities by releasing unlawful legal aliens and forcing DHS regulation enforcement to threat their lives to remove criminal illegal aliens that ought to have by no means been put again on the streets.”
She continued, saying it was “asinine that these monsters have been launched again onto New Orleans streets to COMMIT MORE CRIMES and create extra victims.”
McLaughlin additionally emphasised that Operation Catahoula Crunch is concentrated on offenders she described as “violent criminals who have been launched after arrest for residence invasion, armed theft, grand theft auto, and rape,” including that “underneath President Trump and Secretary Noem, we’re restoring regulation and order for the American folks.”
AS ICE READIES ‘SWAMP SWEEP,’ MISSISSIPPI PLEDGES TO AID—NOT BLOCK—FEDERAL CRACKDOWN
Thursday’s confrontation got here after a Monday demonstration outdoors Metropolis Corridor, the place dozens gathered to oppose the upcoming sweep. According to local outlet WWNO, Monday’s occasion featured emotional speeches accusing DHS of retraumatizing immigrant communities.
One demonstrator informed the gang that “we have been hurting, we have been deserted and as an alternative of assist, we received troopers with rifles,” including that the neighborhood wants “housing, well being care, actual jobs, not troopers.”
One other protester grew emotional whereas shouting about a deceased family member, saying, “You may’t crush the flame of somebody who’s already gone.”
Organizers on Monday accused federal authorities and native police of “concentrating on weak communities” and vowed to proceed demonstrating “for so long as Operation Swamp Sweep stays in impact.”
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WWNO reported that Monday’s occasion was organized by the New Orleans Alliance Towards Racist and Political Repression, with assist from Freedom Street Socialist Group, Indivisible NOLA, Union Migrante and others.
DHS has given no finish date past confirming the operation is predicted to run for roughly two months.
Stepheny Value covers crime, together with lacking individuals, homicides and migrant crime. Ship story tricks to stepheny.worth@fox.com.
