Customs and Border Patrol agents are causing fear and chaos as Trump’s immigration crackdown moves into New Orleans. In Catahoula Crunch, an operation named after the Louisiana state dog, masked agents are violently assaulting people and arresting U.S. citizens.
The economic impacts of the immigration crackdown in New Orleans are hitting small businesses:
- Children aren’t attending school—parents are afraid to take them (there have been several incidents where parents are arrested while sitting in school drop-off and pickup lines.
- Construction business owners say employees aren’t coming to work and they’re not able to complete projects. It isn’t just undocumented employees, but U.S. citizens who don’t want to be harassed and possibly detained based on their race or people with a mixed-status family
- Restaurant owners won’t be able to stay open without employees coming into work.
The residents of New Orleans are scared. Many refuse to leave home. It isn’t just undocumented immigrants who are worried. Legal immigrants and U.S. citizens don’t want to deal with the increasingly violent conduct of ICE and Border Patrol agents. This has been a major problem since SCOTUS ruled that racial profiling is legal.
The Greg Bovino Show
Greg Bovino has been serving as a senior official in the United States Border Patrol since 2019. Recently, a reporter zoomed in on Bovino’s phone as he was texting from the back of an unmarked vehicle in a New Orleans suburb.
Sorry about the language used by the original poster, I wasn’t able to find the video without it.
The video below was recorded in the same Kenner neighborhood, at the same time as the reporter was zooming in on Bovino’s text messages.
New Orleans is on our minds and in our hearts. However, it’s clear in videos posted on social media by residents of New Orleans that they aren’t going to let Greg Bovino and his goons terrorize communities like Kenner. People are in the street and pushing back to protect their friends and neighbors—and that’s a beautiful thing.
Masked imposters
With ICE and CBP agents covering their faces and refusing to identify themselves, it’s hard to know whether they’re official. When someone being approached by masked men who just got out of an unmarked minivan, it’s hard to know if they should comply or run.
Several cases of men impersonating ICE agents have been reported. This is something that was happening more often in the beginning when agents were also dressed in plain clothes. They agencies have become increasingly militarized since then and are now decked out in full military-grade gear. That doesn’t stop impostors from ptting on a mask and preying on women, however.
DHS has been warned repeatedly that allowing agents to hide their identity could result in bad actors impersonating them to kidnap people. Several women have been abducted, forced into unmarked vehicles and sexually assaulted by men wearing masks.
