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U.S. Border Patrol agents detained multiple people with work permits and American citizenship immigration sweeps so far, according to immigrant rights groups and attorneys representing one detainee.

The U.S. citizens were detained by federal agents for questioning and then released, according to Union Migrante, an immigrant-rights group whose members research and publicize immigration enforcement operations in the New Orleans region.

Video provided by an organizer for the group shows Border Patrol agents putting one of the men in handcuffs after he tells them he is a U.S. citizen.

New Orleans-based immigration attorney Homero López said a 21-year-old client with a work permit and other protections the Department of Homeland Security grants to juvenile abuse victims had been detained at a restaurant in Kenner. The client was being held in the detention facility for he said.

In announcing their “Catahoula Crunch” operation Wednesday, which follows Border Patrol sweeps in Chicago and North Carolina, the DHS identified its targets as immigrants without legal status and with criminal histories.

Official DHS social media accounts on Thursday touted the arrest in New Orleans of Binh Van To, a Vietnamese national whom the agency said had convictions for rape and aggravated kidnapping.

"These are sick people who have lived among us for far too long," the agency said.

Attempts to reach attorneys for To on Thursday were not immediately successful.

As the operation started Wednesday, DHS shared 10 mug shots of undocumented immigrants who were living in ����h after previous arrests, including those arrested on counts of rape, domestic abuse, child endangerment and more. 

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from the Shreveport area, applauded DHS’ efforts Thursday, posting on social media that "sanctuary city" policies have made communities dangerous and “the people of our GREAT city deserve better, and help is now on the ground.”

But advocates and immigration lawyers say Border Patrol's professed goal of detaining people with serious criminal records contradicts on-the-ground realities of those Catahoula Crunch has targeted thus far — mostly day laborers and wage workers without felony criminal records whom agents encountered in public spaces.

Mirroring critiques of the agency's tactics in Charlotte and Chicago, Union Migrante and other advocacy groups have accused Border Patrol agents of racial profiling in the New Orleans operation.

"They’re not focusing on particular people, they're focusing on particular traits," said López, a former immigration judge. "Those traits tend to be physical in nature."

In response to questions about the agency's tactics and allegations of U.S. citizens being held for questioning, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin provided with criminal records whom McLaughlin said the operation had captured by Thursday. They include another Vietnamese man, Hung Ngoc Tran, whom DHS said had prior sexual assault, larceny and child fondling convictions. Another arrestee, Carlos Roberto Guardado-Ramirez of Honduras, had been previously arrested for simple battery, domestic abuse child endangerment, resisting an officer and driving while intoxicated, according to the agency.

Dozens of people appear to have been detained in the operation in total, though U.S. officials have declined to provide a comprehensive tally. In Chicago and North Carolina, the vast majority of detainees had no criminal backgrounds.

Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino has defended the agency's tactics in Charlotte and Chicago.

The agency also faced of racial profiling in those cities, in which federal immigration agents detained as President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown has cast an increasingly wide net. Though it isn't final, a September ruling from the allowed agents to question people about their immigration statuses based solely on factors such as race, ethnicity and whether they speak in foreign languages.

Union Migrante organizer Rachel Taber in an interview said the group has identified three citizens who were detained by Border Patrol and held for questioning by agents, then were allowed to leave once they produced proof of citizenship.

Taber provided video of Border Patrol agents questioning and then handcuffing a man Wednesday in the parking lot of a Lowe's store on Elysian Fields Avenue in New Orleans. Several Border Patrol agents who wore green tactical gear, masks and body armor surrounded the man with an unmarked white pickup truck visible in the background.

"Where were you born, man?" a Border Patrol agent asked the man in the video. 

"I'm a U.S. citizen," the man replied. 

"But where were you born?" the agent responded. He repeated the question in Spanish, adding, "tell me the truth."

"I won't answer any more questions," the man answered in English. 

"OK," the agent responded. "Will you put handcuffs on him, please?"

López's 21-year-old client received "special immigrant juvenile status" while he was still a juvenile, he said — a DHS designation for immigrant youth who have been abused, abandoned, or neglected by a parent. That status granted the client , an additional under which authorities agree not to deport someone due to extenuating circumstances.

The man's status also earned him a work permit. He was in the process of applying for a green card, López said.

"This tells us that their focus is not the worst of the worst or people who have committed all these crimes," López said. "They’re going after folks who are working, who are doing it quote-unquote 'the right way.'"