With the Border Patrol’s immigration enforcement operation underway in New Orleans and the surrounding areas, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has a warning for anyone who gets in agents’ way – not only is it a federal crime to obstruct ICE or the Border Patrol, but it’s a state crime as well, punishable by fines and prison time.
“They’re putting a lot of people in danger if they are using their car, or their bodies, or any other weapon or anything like that, to try and interfere with ICE. And I think that people should stop doing it,” Murrill said.
Furthermore, Murrill says public officials who obstruct their operations face charges of malfeasance in office. Some Democrats and immigration lawyers say that since the Border Patrol has taken over immigration enforcement sweeps from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they’re going after people indiscriminately based solely on the color of their skin or their Hispanic appearance. Murrill disagrees with that notion.
“I think that they are doing their jobs by doing some research and figuring out who they are going after, and they are pursuing those individuals wherever they find them,” Murrill said.
In recent months, Border Patrol agents have been captured on video using aggressive tactics like boxing people in with their vehicles, smashing in windows and forcing people out of their vehicles and pepper-spraying protestors at point-blank range. Murrill says those videos likely do not tell the whole story.
“I think that people, who are opposed to ICE and opposed to enforcing our immigration policies, are making things up to get people upset. And so they will say whatever it is that they want to say that they think is going to get somebody’s attention,” Murrill said.
Operation Swamp Sweep is expected to last two months, with a stated goal of 5,000 arrests.