As federal agents continue their efforts to capture illegal immigrants who have migrated to New Orleans in the last nine months, the U.S. Attorney said Thursday there remains no evidence to support fears that vicious Latin American gangs could move into the city.


U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said estimates range between 40,000 and 100,000 immigrants moving to the New Orleans-area since Hurricane Katrina, bringing law enforcement challenges never before seen in this area.

"Because New Orleans is rebuilding virtually from the ground up, New Orleans has become a frontier town of sorts; a border town,” Letten said.


The number of illegal immigrants in the city remains unknown, but capturing them has certainly heated up operations at Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"Maybe almost a dozen operations we've conducted in the last three or four months, we've probably apprehended about 400 or 500 people,” said Temple Black, an ICE spokesman.


Illegal aliens are generally deported when caught, agents said, unless they’re suspected of serious crimes, and then they face prosecution and jail time. Forty illegal immigrants were arrested in a recent operation at Lee Circle.


"Of those 40, there were 12 who had either outstanding warrants or some charge against them that had to be pursued,” Black said.

U.S. Attorney Letten said there was a connection between illegal immigration and crime, but there was no need to panic in New Orleans; thanks in part to cooperation between local and federal law enforcement agencies. For example, during last fiscal year, federal prosecutors handled about 30-immigration felony cases.


“This year, I think in about the first four months of this fiscal year, the first four or five months, we have already exceeded that number,” Letten said.


However, a big worry has been whether members of violent drug gangs would migrate here.


Only one member of the violent MS13 gang has been arrested, Black said. He has since been extradited to California.

“I believe there were three or four other gang members, but as far as large numbers, we haven't found that yet,” Black said.

U.S. Attorney Letten said arrests of those associated with the gangs don’t mean they’re operational in New Orleans.


“We don't believe that they are yet, and we believe that if we continue to be vigilant, we're gonna prevent that from happening,” he said.

Federal agents said a top priority continues to be preventing illegal immigrants from getting jobs in critical industries like the port, the airport, military bases, or chemical plants.

“And also to…enforce sanctions against employers who knowingly employ illegals in the workplace,” Letten said.


Letten said immigrants would not disappear any time soon, so law enforcement efforts were gearing up for the long haul.

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**What a joke. How can you call 40,000 to 100,000 people that suddenly appear out of no where immigrants? Give me a break. They are illegal and we all know it. LEGAL people don't move around like that... only unstable looking for work illegals invade a place with such astronomical numbers..

As for them only finding ONE MS-13 gang member. Hello??? That's just the beginning. I'm sure there are many laying low right now. They probably sent one to scout out the area and are moving in others as I type. N.O. isn't safe by any means but you add in this element and that place is going to be like a war zone. SMH