ICE federal agents in Los Angeles on Jun. 13.U.S. Homeland Security / Anadolu via Getty Images
The Trump administration launched immigration enforcement operations in New Orleans and Minneapolis Wednesday, a day after President Donald Trump said he will be sending National Guard troops to Louisiana.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement about the New Orleans operation that it is "targeting criminal aliens roaming free thanks to sanctuary policies that force local authorities to ignore U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement" requests to hold people they've arrested for ICE, known as arrest detainers. Trump had not specified as of Wednesday morning how many Guard troops he'd send.
DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that those targeted in New Orleans include people released after arrest for home invasion, armed robbery, grand theft auto and rape.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, previously said he welcomes the administration's intervention in the Democrat-run city that has logged significant drops in crime, and is on pace to have its lowest number of homicides in nearly 50 years, according to crime data from the police department.
Shortly after the DHS announcement, the FBI in New Orleans announced in a statement that federal agents and state police will launch a joint effort to "deter assaults on federal officers and attempts to obstruct law enforcement action" during DHS' immigration enforcement in the city.
The Trump administration also launched an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis, a senior law enforcement official told NBC News Wednesday.
Confirmation of that launch follows reports that the administration was planning another immigration crackdown this week in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, where a number of Somali immigrants and their family members live.
A senior law enforcement administration official told NBC News that ICE officers are not specifically targeting Somali immigrants and their families, but may be arresting some who they allege have violated immigration laws.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump ended a Cabinet meeting by unleashing a tirade against Minnesota's population of people from Somalia, saying "they should go back to where they came from" and calling Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., "garbage."
"I don't want them in our country. I'll be honest with you, OK. Somebody will say, 'Oh, that's not politically correct.' I don't care. I don't want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason," Trump said. The president previously also attacked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, calling him a slur that disparages people with disabilities.
A representative for Omar did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday but she said on X: "His obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs." Omar's family fled the civil war in Somalia and lived in a Kenyan refugee camp before she moved to the U.S. and became a citizen.