A coalition of local activist groups is escalating its weekly demonstrations outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Field Office in downtown New Orleans, protesting what they describe as the agency’s role in human rights abuses and political repression both locally and abroad.
The rallies, organized by the Nola 4 Palestine coalition, will continue every Friday at noon outside the ICE Field Office at 1250 Poydras St. The coalition, made up of organizations advocating for immigrant rights, police accountability, and freedom of speech, says the protests are a direct response to what they call the “Trump administration’s renewed assault on immigrant communities and pro-Palestine university students.”
This Friday’s action will mark the second consecutive weekly demonstration, as organizers call attention to the New Orleans ICE office’s central role in detention, deportation, and repression across Louisiana and the Gulf South.
“ICE’s New Orleans Field Office is ground zero for the state-sanctioned terror being inflicted on immigrant families, workers, and now even students and professors daring to speak out for Palestinian freedom,” said a spokesperson for the coalition. “Our communities are making it clear: we reject this war on immigrants and this attack on campus free speech.”
According to the coalition, the New Orleans ICE office oversees the detention of over 7,000 people in nine detention centers across the state—facilities that have faced repeated allegations of physical and sexual abuse, medical neglect, and other human rights violations.
But activists say ICE’s reach in Louisiana extends beyond the walls of these detention centers. In April, the New Orleans office revoked visas for 16 students studying at local universities including Tulane, SUNO, and UNO. The same office, they allege, played a direct role in the targeting of students and faculty critical of U.S. support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza—among them Mahmoud Khalil, Badar Khan Suri, and Rumeyza Ozturk, all of whom activists say were subjected to unconstitutional detention.
Last week, the New Orleans office also deported two immigrant mothers from Louisiana, including their U.S. citizen children.
The protests take place against the backdrop of a broader crackdown on immigrant communities and dissenting voices. On Thursday, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed an executive order allowing ICE to deputize local police officers—a move activists say will escalate harassment and surveillance of immigrant and Muslim communities across the state.
The coalition says these weekly protests will continue indefinitely, aimed at building public pressure to end what they describe as ICE’s campaign of terror and to demand accountability from elected officials.
“We won’t stand by while our neighbors are snatched from their homes, while our students are silenced, or while our tax dollars fund human rights abuses,” said the coalition. “Not in our city. Not in our state.”
