On December 4, residents came to the New Orleans City Council’s chambers to urge the Council to do more to protect New Orleanians from ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), including creating ICE-free zones on City-owned property and codifying a policy banning collaboration between City agencies and staff and ICE. Beginning on December 3, ICE and other agencies began a massive operation with roughly 250 agents stationed in the New Orleans area, aiming to arrest 5,000 people in Louisiana and Mississippi. As the goon squads have descended, Homeland Security has claimed it arrested over 250 people in the first eight days of its operation. The masked agents have targeted Lowe’s and Home Depot stores, racially profiling and terrorizing New Orleanians and effectively forcing many people to remain home and cease work and all normal activity for fear of detention and deportation. The Department of Homeland Security, under the direction of Trump and commander-at-large of the U.S. Border Patrol Greg Bovino, has been detaining people in inhumane prison camps, forcing children as young as 3 to serve as their own legal counsel, and deporting people to countries they have no ties to, sometimes to be kept in bondage in a foreign prison camp. While organizations like ISLA (Immigration Services & Legal Advocacy), Unión Migrante, and others have been organizing legal support for immigrants and training immigrants and allies alike on their civil rights in case of encounters with ICE agents, and neighborhood groups have sprung up to monitor ICE activity and to make sure children get to and from school safely, the Council did not have any ICE-related items on their agenda. All of the Councilmembers, including Mayor-elect Helena Moreno, voted unanimously to suspend the rules for public comment in response to the comments, which are meant to respond to specific agenda items. Councilmember JP Morrell, who presided over the meeting, at times seemed eager to cut the mic. The following is an excerpt of in-person public comments. They have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
I am asking City Council for ICE-free zones. Make all City-owned property ICE-free zones and prohibit ICE and DHS from using City property to stage their operations. No collaboration with ICE. City Council must pass ordinances that codify non-collaboration between the City of New Orleans and ICE, including all of its offices— [interrupted by Councilmember Morrell]1Brittney C.
I’m here today because I’m demanding that we have ICE-free zones in the city that prohibit ICE— [interrupted by Councilmember Morrell, mic cut off]2Adam P.
Good morning. I’m here to talk on [agenda] item four on page seven, and it’s in regard to, specifically, use of zoning. And I believe that ICE-free zones should be incorporated— [interrupted by Councilmember Morrell, mic cut off] Even if you cut the mic, I think we should condemn ICE… Fascism is here, and they are coming for your neighbors. I will not take up more than my two minutes. Allow the people their two minutes, it won’t take up more than an hour of your time. Just hear what the people are asking for, and then you’ll move on, that’s it!3Hakim M.
All of the addresses that are up on the agenda for permission and public safety to demolish are right near the constant notifications coming up on my phone. We delivered a letter to City Council on November 21—I’m part of the Southeast Dignity Not Detention Coalition—we requested a meeting. It should be on the agenda, we should be on the agenda! [interrupted by Councilmember Morrell, mic cut off] Public safety is at the heart of this, not just for undocumented people but for the entire city of New Orleans… You have to do more than just put out a notice telling some people to carry their passports. Please! Little kids are not going to school right now. People are not able to take their disabled parents to their medical appointments. [Border Patrol agents] are planning on staying here for two months and are planning on taking 5,000 of the people who live in the New Orleans area. You know that you need to do more to protect us. We are doing everything we can. People are organizing food drops. People are taking kids to school, taking the elderly to their appointments—people who have two or three jobs. We are doing everything with very little. You all have a lot more than us. I wouldn’t come here to disrupt business as usual if it wasn’t a matter of a humanitarian crisis. Please, I’m begging you. Please. Listen to us.4Mitch G.
illustrations by Sadie Wiese
To follow up on this issue, you can email your City councilmembers. To submit a public comment, follow instructions at council.nola.gov. Interested in reading all comments after a meeting? You can email your councilmember or file a public records request.
