The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched an immigration crackdown on Wednesday in New Orleans, the latest Democratic-run city to be targeted by the Trump administration.

“The men and women of DHS law enforcement have landed in the Big Easy,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said on X, using the nickname for the Louisiana city.

Noem said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents “will remove the worst of the worst from New Orleans, Louisiana, after the city’s sanctuary politicians have ignored the rule of law.”

Sanctuary policies enacted by New Orleans authorities limit the cooperation of local law enforcement with federal immigration agents.

The DHS crackdown comes a day after President Donald Trump said he plans to send National Guard troops to the southern US city, an action he has previously taken in Los Angeles, Washington and Memphis.

“We’re going to New Orleans pretty soon,” Trump said. “The governor called me. He’d like to have us go there. He’s asked for help in New Orleans and we’re going to go there in a couple of weeks.”

Trump has said the troops are needed to combat crime and assist with the sweeping immigration crackdown he pledged during his White House campaign.

Critics dispute that, with the mayors of Los Angeles and Memphis both saying the troops are not needed.

The governor of Louisiana is a Republican, but the mayor-elect of New Orleans is a Democrat.

Mayor-elect Helena Moreno, who takes up her post on January 12, expressed concern on Wednesday about how immigration raids have been conducted in other cities.

“Do we want the most violent criminals off our streets? Absolutely. Yes,” Moreno was quoted as saying by NOLA.com. “I don’t think anyone is going to object to that.

“But what we’ve been seeing across the country and in other cities is that Border Patrol appears to be targeting brown people and potentially violating even some of their due process rights.”

She also expressed concern about federal agents concealing their faces with masks and not being readily identifiable, NOLA.com reported.

“If you are a masked person and not necessarily identifiable as an officer, you’re coming up on people and grabbing them, it can be a real safety issue for everyone around, including the Border Patrol or ICE agent,” Moreno said.

‘Restoring law and order’

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the New Orleans operation would target “illegal criminal aliens” wanted for “home invasion, armed robbery, grand theft auto, and rape.”

“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, we are restoring law and order for the American people,” McLaughlin said in a statement.

The Trump administration claims that most of the undocumented migrants swept up in the immigration crackdown have committed or are wanted for crimes.

The Cato Institute, in a study published last month, said, however, that only five per cent of those taken into ICE custody since October 1 had a violent criminal conviction and 73 per cent had no criminal conviction at all.