A New Orleans Police recruit who was an illegal immigrant and accused of fraud was arrested by ICE days before graduating from the academy, exposing failures in vetting and sparking criticism about sanctuary policies.
One week before his scheduled graduation from the New Orleans Police Department academy, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Larry Temah, a 46-year-old man from Cameroon who had been hired in June and issued a department firearm. NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the department had no information during hiring to indicate he lacked legal status, but the arrest revealed a deportation order and alleged fraud in his immigration record. The episode immediately raised questions about how someone with a deportation order could make it into a major city police academy.
Temah’s immigration history traces back to a visitor visa in 2015 and a conditional residency obtained through marriage in 2016, followed by federal denial of permanent status in 2022 amid fraud allegations. After missing three immigration court hearings a judge issued a deportation order, which he ignored until ICE located him. Despite that background, he applied to NOPD in June 2025, passed E-Verify using a driver’s license and Social Security number, and showed no criminal history in standard checks that included the National Crime Information Center database.
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t hold back its reaction, pointing directly at local policy decisions that they say shield illegal immigrants. “This illegal alien from Cameroon, Larry Temah, is not only breaking the law with every step he takes in this country illegally, but the New Orleans Police Department hired him and issued him a firearm – what kind of law enforcement department gives criminal illegal aliens guns and badges?” the agency told media outlets. They also warned bluntly that “It’s a FELONY for illegal aliens to even possess a firearm.”
Kirkpatrick has defended NOPD’s hiring procedures, saying the timing of the deportation order meant the department had no cause to suspect Temah during the recruitment process. That defense does not satisfy critics who point out that issuing a firearm and a badge to someone later revealed to have a deportation order is a public safety failure. The concern goes beyond one recruit; it’s about whether political stances on immigration are undermining basic vetting standards for people who carry authority and weapons.
This case is not isolated: federal authorities previously arrested Radule Bojovic, an immigrant from Montenegro working for the Hanover Police Department in Illinois, after discovering immigration issues last October. Bojovic was hired in January 2025 with a federal work permit despite having overstayed a 2015 visitor visa, and he returned to duty after posting a $2,500 immigration bond. Incidents like these suggest gaps in background checks and in how agencies handle immigration red flags when hiring law enforcement personnel.
Those gaps call into question the practical value of tools like E-Verify if they can be passed with documents that mask deeper immigration problems, and they underline how missed court dates and ignored deportation orders can let people slip back into positions of public trust. Local agencies must reconcile the legal requirement to vet employees with policies that sometimes instruct officials to ignore ICE detainers. When those two directives clash, the public loses faith in both law enforcement and immigration enforcement.
Republican-leaning critics argue that sanctuary-style policies and relaxed enforcement priorities invite risk into critical institutions and that this is exactly the kind of avoidable failure those policies produce. They say policing should not be a place where ideological experiments trump straightforward legality and safety, and they demand immediate revisions to prevent armed recruits with unresolved immigration orders from slipping through. The NOPD situation is a test case for whether departments will tighten vetting or continue to rely on paperwork that can conceal serious immigration judgments.
NOPD now faces pressure to explain how the deportation order went unnoticed until December 5 and whether its processes will change to prevent repeats. DHS has framed the problem as systemic rather than accidental, urging that ignoring ICE detainers and related policies amounts to a reckless gamble with public safety. How NOPD answers those questions will matter for other departments watching this unfold and for voters deciding whether law enforcement is prioritizing legality and citizen safety.
