By Omar Villafranca
December 9, 2025 / CBS News
New Orleans — What began as a typical Monday morning for 18-year-old Jonathan Escalante turned into a crisis 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 told CBS News. He said he was unable to reach her again. A relative on the line with Cruz said agents were shouting for the door to be opened and a window was smashed before the call cut off.
Cruz, a Honduran national who has lived in the United States for about two decades, had reportedly stayed away from work for nearly three weeks amid heightened immigration enforcement in the area, Escalante said. The family had debated whether she should take a painting job the night before, and he said recent raids had kept them largely inside.
Her arrest was part of an operation called “Catahoula Crunch,” a Department of Homeland Security initiative 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 a U.S. citizen. He said he is unaware of any criminal history for Cruz and does not understand why ICE would have singled her out.
ICE did not respond to multiple requests for comment and did not provide information about Cruz or the reasons for her apprehension.
After the arrest, Escalante became the primary caregiver for his 9-year-old sister—a role he said he had not expected to take on. Both siblings are U.S. citizens, but Escalante said he still fears being stopped by immigration agents 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 anxiety echoes a broader concern: more than 170 U.S. citizens have been detained by immigration agents so far this year, according to a ProPublica report. In a recent New Orleans incident, U.S. citizen Jacelynn Guzman said she was chased by ICE agents who dismissed her insistence she was born and raised in the United States; agents later said she fit the description of a suspect.
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) said it is exploring legal action to halt detention operations in Louisiana. A LULAC spokesman told CBS News the organization has set up a GoFundMe to assist Cruz’s family and believes she is being held at a detention facility in Mississippi.
As the family awaits more information, Escalante replayed his mother’s final words before the call 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.