<\/p>\n
State and federal authorities are closely tracking online criticism and protests against the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown in New Orleans<\/a>, monitoring message boards around the clock for threats to agents while compiling regular updates on public \u201csentiment\u201d surrounding the arrests, according to law enforcement records reviewed by the Associated Press.<\/p>\n The intelligence gathering comes even as officials have released few details about the first arrests made last week as part of \u201cCatahoula Crunch\u201d, prompting calls for greater transparency from local officials who say they have been kept in the dark about virtually every aspect of the operation.<\/p>\n \u201cOnline opinions still remain mixed, with some supporting the operations while others are against them,\u201d said a briefing circulated early on Sunday to law enforcement officials. Earlier bulletins noted \u201ca combination of groups urging the public to record ICE and Border Patrol\u201d as well as \u201cadditional locations where agents can find immigrants\u201d.<\/p>\n Immigration authorities have insisted the sweeps are targeted at \u201ccriminal illegal aliens\u201d. But the law enforcement records detail criminal histories for less than a third of the 38 people arrested in the first two days of the operation.<\/p>\n Local leaders told the AP those numbers \u2013 which law enforcement officials were admonished not to distribute to the media \u2013 undermined the stated aim of the roundup. They also expressed concern that the online surveillance could chill free speech as authorities threaten to charge anyone interfering with immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n \u201cIt confirms what we already knew \u2013 this was not about public safety, it\u2019s about stoking chaos and fear and terrorizing communities,\u201d said the Louisiana state senator Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who represents New Orleans<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s furthering a sick narrative of stereotypes that immigrants are violent.\u201d<\/p>\n The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to questions about the intelligence gathering and referred the AP to a prior news release touting \u201cdozens of arrests\u201d. The agency has not released an accounting of the detainees taken into custody or their criminal histories.<\/p>\n The DHS has publicly detailed only six arrests stemming from the operation \u2013 all people with criminal histories \u2013 including a man they vaguely said was convicted of \u201chomicide\u201d and another convicted of sexual assault. The agency, which has several hundred agents on the ground in south-east Louisiana, has said it aims to make at least 5,000 arrests in the region over an operation expected to last up to two months<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAmericans should be able to live without fear of violent criminal illegal aliens harming them, their families or their neighbors,\u201d the DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said.<\/p>\n DHS and Republican leaders have framed the crackdown as targeting the most violent offenders. But the records reviewed by the AP identify only nine of the 38 people arrested in the first days as having criminal histories that rose beyond traffic violations \u2013 information the intelligence bulletins warn \u201cshould not be distributed to the media\u201d.<\/p>\n The New Orleans city council president, JP Morrell, said the stated goals of the operation to arrest violent offenders did not align with the reality of what is taking place.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s literally no information being given to the city of New Orleans whatsoever,\u201d Morrell said. \u201cIf the goal was for them to come here and augment existing law enforcement, to pursue violent criminals or people with extensive criminal histories, why wouldn\u2019t you be more transparent about who you\u2019ve arrested and why?\u201d<\/p>\n