Louisiana governor asks for national guard deployment to New Orleans

The Donald Trump-supporting Republican governor of Louisiana has asked for national guard troops to be deployed to New Orleans and other cities, saying Monday that the state needs help fighting crime and praising the president’s decision to send the military to Washington DC and Memphis.

The Republican governor, Jeff Landry, asked for up to 1,000 troops through fiscal year 2026 in a letter sent to the Trump administration’s top military official, Pete Hegseth. It comes weeks after Trump suggested New Orleans could be one of his next targets for deploying the national guard to fight crime.

Preliminary data from the New Orleans police department shows that there had been 75 homicides so far in 2025 – including 14 who were killed on New Year’s Day when a terrorist aimed a truck attack on Bourbon Street. There were 124 homicides in 2024. In 2023, there were 193.

New Orleans-based crime trends analyst Jeff Asher, the co-founder of AH Datalyst, wrote on the Bluesky social media platform that the city has had its fewest murders since 1970. “Carjackings are down 80% relative to 2022, vehicle burglaries are down 70%, shootings are down 63%,” Asher also wrote, adding in part: “This is a wholly unnecessary stunt.”

Washington and Memphis similarly had reported steep crime reductions when Trump nonetheless sent troops into those cities in the name of crimefighting.

Many New Orleanians recall how the national guard was sent into their city in 2006. That happened on the orders of the Democratic Louisiana governor at the time, the late Kathleen Blanco, in the wake of an infamous quintuple murder – victimizing five teenagers – as New Orleans slogged through rebuilding from the deadly federal levee failures which devastated it during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Trump also sent troops in recent months to Los Angeles and his administration has announced plans for similar actions in other major US cities. That includes Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, where the president’s administration has been carrying out aggressive immigration enforcement actions amid its ambitions for mass deportations.

Leaders in Democratic-controlled states have criticized Trump’s planned deployments. In Oregon, elected officials have said troops in Portland are not needed. With respect to Chicago, Illinois governor JB Pritzker – a Democrat – has said: “None of what Trump is doing is making [the state] safer.”

Landry’s request, in contrast, maintained there were “elevated violent crime rates” as well as local law enforcement shortages in Shreveport and Baton Rouge beside New Orleans.

Similar to New Orleans, Baton Rouge – Louisiana’s capital – has actually seen a decrease in homicides compared to last year, according to police department figures. But robberies and assaults were on pace to surpass 2024 figures in those categories.

The mayors of Shreveport and Baton Rouge are Republican – New Orleans’ is a Democrat. All three cities have majority Black populations, according to demographic data.

Landry also cited Louisiana’s vulnerability to natural disasters and a need for extra support for major events, including Mardi Gras and college football bowl games in New Orleans in particular.

Associated Press contributed reporting