By Omar Villafranca
December 9, 2025 / CBS News
New Orleans — What began as a normal Monday morning for 18-year-old Jonathan Escalante changed when his mother, 38-year-old Vilma Cruz, called to say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had pulled up behind her car in Kenner, Louisiana.
“She told the man in Spanish that ‘I didn’t do anything to you, sir,’ and then she hung up the call,” Escalante said in an interview with CBS News. He said he was never able to call her back. Another relative who was on the phone with Cruz said she heard agents yelling for the door to be opened and then the sound of a window breaking before the call went dead.
Cruz, who is from Honduras and has lived in the U.S. for roughly two decades, had spent almost three weeks avoiding work because of increased immigration enforcement in the area, Escalante said. The family had discussed whether she should leave the house for a painting job the night before. “We’ve all been talking to her as well, that she should probably not go,” he said, noting recent raids had kept the family inside.
Her arrest occurred during an operation called “Catahoula Crunch,” a Department of Homeland Security effort officials say targets “criminal illegal aliens” in the New Orleans area. Escalante said he does not know his mother’s immigration status and does not believe she is an American citizen. He said he is not aware of any criminal history for Cruz and does not understand why ICE would target her.
ICE did not respond to repeated requests for comment or provide information about Cruz or the reason for her apprehension.
Following the arrest, Escalante became the sole caregiver for his 9-year-old sister — a responsibility he said he never expected to have. Both siblings are U.S. citizens, but Escalante said he still fears being detained and sometimes carries his passport “just in case.”
“Because I am afraid of ICE agents just stopping me because they feel like it,” he said.
That fear reflects a broader concern: more than 170 U.S. citizens have been detained by immigration agents so far this year, according to a ProPublica report. Last week in New Orleans, U.S. citizen Jacelynn Guzman said she was chased by ICE agents who ignored her insistence she was born and raised in the U.S.; agents later said she matched the description of a suspect.
The League of United Latin American Citizens is exploring legal action to stop the detention operations in Louisiana. A LULAC spokesman told CBS News the group has set up a GoFundMe to help Cruz’s family and believes she is being held in a Mississippi detention facility.
As the family waits for information, Escalante recalled his mother’s voice on the call before it ended. “She just sounded really worried, and her voice wasn’t shaky — I’m pretty sure she was forcing herself, because she probably didn’t want me to hear that from her,” he said. “We’ve had bumps here and there, but she would never show me the side of her where she has to worry about bills and all that other stuff.”
Allie Weintraub contributed to this report.