GEOFF BENNETT: The Department of Homeland Security confirms it started a sweeping immigration crackdown in New Orleans today.

There are also multiple reports that the Trump administration has started an immigration enforcement operation in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul region.

That's after the president repeatedly disparaged the Somali community in that area, which is the largest in the country.

Our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, is with us.

And, Liz, I understand you have more information about how the president's immigration crackdown is being carried out.

LIZ LANDERS: Geoff, the "News Hour" can confirm that Border Patrol, not Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is primarily running the New Orleans operation.

The Trump administration has used that strategy to crack down on immigration in several other cities this year.

And, today, the face of these operations, senior Border Patrol Agent Greg Bovino, was spotted in a Home Depot parking lot in a suburb of the city.

Scenes in New Orleans this week, a business warning federal immigration agents to stay out, while a Methodist Church praises the contributions of immigrants.

The Big Easy is now the latest major city to become part of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

The Department of Homeland Security announcing today the start of an operation dubbed Catahoula Crunch that will target -- quote -- "criminal illegal aliens that have been released from jail," a stated effort that's moved across the country this year.

In Charlotte, North Carolina, last month, Border Patrol agents were seen smashing a car window, chasing people in parking lots, and conducting arrests on the side of the road as part of what it called Operation Charlotte's Web.

The Department of Homeland Security says at least 425 people were arrested in that operation, though the total number of people arrested with prior criminal records is not clear.

The crackdown there sparked protests and condemnation from the state's Democratic governor, Josh Stein.

GOV.

JOSH STEIN (D-NC): This is not making us safer.

It's stoking fear and dividing our community.

GREGORY BOVINO, El Centro Sector U.S.

Border Patrol Chief: It seems like he chooses illegal aliens over American citizens in his own state.

LIZ LANDERS: The man behind these scenes, senior Border Patrol Officer Greg Bovino, who has become one of the faces of the administration's massive immigration enforcement operations.

He's vocal about defending his controversial work on TV.

GREGORY BOVINO: Too many times, we're finding that some very, very disreputable individuals are seeking work in people's homes, in their gardens, and otherwise.

We don't want those people in society.

LIZ LANDERS: And on social media.

GREGORY BOVINO: This is our (EXPLETIVE DELETED) country.

LIZ LANDERS: Where he regularly posts Hollywood-style videos like these.

HAMED ALEAZIZ, The New York Times: ICE is in charge of interior enforcement, so... LIZ LANDERS: Hamed Aleaziz covers immigration for The New York Times.

He says this kind of interior immigration enforcement is normally carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, officers, not the Border Patrol.

HAMED ALEAZIZ: Border Patrol typically and historically in the modern era has mostly worked at the border.

I mean, they are in charge of stopping people who cross between ports of entries, people who are crossing illegally into the country.

That has been their mandate.

And what we're seeing now is a change with that mandate, of course.

LIZ LANDERS: Bovino joined Customs and Border Protection in 1996, where he worked in the El Centro Sector of California's southern border.

MAN: Reports of a surge in raids of undocumented residents have been circulating on social media.

LIZ LANDERS: In the waning days of the Biden administration earlier this year, Bovino led a sweeping immigration operation in California's Kern County, which is about 300 miles from the border, and home to a community of Latino farmworkers.

Border Patrol says the operation resulted in 78 arrests.

HAMED ALEAZIZ: It almost seemed like a model, a first step in Bovino's efforts to take immigration enforcement across the country.

WOMAN: You need to identify yourselves.

LIZ LANDERS: Those methods were seen again in Los Angeles over the summer, with Bovino tapped to lead the way.

HAMED ALEAZIZ: If you recall, in June, ICE did an operation in downtown Los Angeles, and there were protesters who showed up.

And there was all kinds of protests after this operation.

President Trump sent in the National Guard.

And during that time, they -- the Department of Homeland Security had extra people from across the agency come with resources to help with operations, with security, all of that.

And Bovino and El Centro Sector that he runs in California were part of that.

And ever since then, he was empowered by the administration.

LIZ LANDERS: That came after the White House increased pressure on DHS to reach its goal of 3,000 immigration arrests per day.

How is it more efficient for the administration to use Border Patrol agents instead of ICE agents to conduct some of these operations and raids?

HAMED ALEAZIZ: If you have more agents on the ground, more resources on the ground aside from ICE doing arrests, you're naturally going to boost the number of people being arrested.

An arrest is oftentimes the beginning of the process of a deportation.

LIZ LANDERS: After the immigration crackdown in L.A., agents were sued for racial profiling.

A lower court ruled against the Border Patrol, but the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court and won, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh ruling ethnicity can be a relevant factor in immigration stops.

In Chicago, Bovino's tactics have also been the subject of another contentious lawsuit.

Protesters and news outlets sued the federal government over excessive use of force during immigration operations in the Midwestern city.

In one instance, Bovino himself appears to launch a gas canister into a crowd, which he said was in response to a protester throwing a rock at his head.

Federal Judge Sara Ellis later determined Bovino lied about the rock and issued a preliminary injunction limiting federal agents' ability to use force, which was temporarily blocked by an appeals court.

Bovino told CBS Chicago that his agents only respond to protesters when necessary.

GREGORY BOVINO: And the use of force that I have seen has been exemplary, and, by exemplary, I would say the least amount of force necessary to accomplish the mission.

LIZ LANDERS: How much decision-making and leeway does Bovino have when it comes to the Border Patrol?

HAMED ALEAZIZ: I think it's -- the leeway and the decision-making that he has, I think, is seen in the operations that he's conducting.

And in every location, there are similar stories of targeting Home Depots, targeting car washes.

These are -- the types of arrests that are happening are all apparently as part of a model that him and his agents have that they believe is successful in getting more arrests.

So I think he is not somebody that's been limited in any way in conducting immigration enforcement.

LIZ LANDERS: How Bovino uses that leeway in New Orleans is yet to be seen.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Liz Landers.