KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Federal Catahoula Crunch operation leads to arrests, shuttering local Hispanic businesses .
Kenner has Louisiana’s highest concentration of Hispanic residents, many fearful of leaving home.
Business owners report drastic drops in customers and revenue due to enforcement.
DHS claims targets are violent offenders, but community fears widespread impact on families.
The doors of Carmela Diaz’s taco joint are locked, the tables are devoid of customers and no one is working in the kitchen. It’s one of many once-thriving Hispanic businesses, from Nicaraguan eateries to Honduran restaurants, emptied out in recent weeks in neighborhoods with lots of signs in Spanish but increasingly fewer people on the streets.
In the city of Kenner, which has the highest concentration of H

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