For the second time in 2025, troops with the Louisiana Army National Guard (LANG) are being deployed to New Orleans. The first, and far more limited, deployment took place in the immediate aftermath of the New Year’s Day terror attack in New Orleans. Military Police conducted security support operations from January 1-3, 2025, with Louisiana State Police in the French Quarter, with LANG MP’s on site within six hours.
In this latest, and far larger, deployment LANG leadership does not identify specific locations where they will deploy various troops in Louisiana. But beyond the focus on Southeast Louisiana and the metro area of New Orleans, other locations cities mentioned included Baton Rouge and Shreveport.
The city of New Orleans now finds itself as the setting for two current federal deployments. The first one got underway December 3, 2025, the immigration crackdown, which will be mentioned later in this report. But first, the Trump administration authorized the deployment of 350 Louisiana National Guard members to the New Orleans metro area last week, and to be in place ahead of New Year's celebrations. As the Louisiana Radio Network Radio reports, those troops are expected to provide extra security for major upcoming events.
Governor Jeff Landry (R-La.), had asked Pres. Trump in September to send one thousand federally-funded guard members to the state of Louisiana to assist local law enforcement in fighting crime. Critics to this specific ‘guard deployment request,’ by the governor, keep asking one question: where is this overwhelming crime in New Orleans and elsewhere that justifies or somehow explains the governor's urgency in wanting to call in the national guard?
Even more confounding, at least to all those those still searching for a logical rationale to bring in the national guard, are the specific crime statistics for the New Orleans metro area. According to the latest figures provided by police, they've seen a double-digit drop in the crime rate in 2025 alone, and even more in recent years. The Graphic created by the nonprofit Metropolitan Crime Commission (MCC), shown directly below, illustrates the overall decline of homicides, shootings, carjackings, and armed robberies in Orleans Parish, La. from 2019 to 2025.
However, when it comes to big tourism events and security needs to guarantee financial success, that’s an entirely different issue than security sweeps or an immigration crackdown. Case in point: New Orleans city officials have joined in the requests for a heavier federal presence during New Year’s celebrations, along with those related to the Sugar Bowl and Mardi Gras. Local leaders point to the 2025 New Year’s Day terror attack, and an alleged terrorist plot that authorities say was recently thwarted, as prime examples of why a heavier footprint of federal law enforcement is necessary.
The U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement that the guard members — some of whom are coming from Washington, D,C., are federally funded, but under the command of state leadership (i.e., Gov. Landry).
Meanwhile, the first federal deployment, briefly mentioned above and still currently underway, was launched by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in early December and is known as “Operation Catahoula Crunch.” This two-month long immigration enforcement operation specifically targets, among other things, what DHS classifies as “undocumented aliens” with violent crime arrests. The agency announced that these are primarily suspects who had been released by police departments.
Gov. Landry has referred to those arrested in the operation as the “worst of the worst” and have been rounded up by more than 250 agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agencies.
According to news releases from Homeland Security, agents have made roughly 370 arrests during Operation Catahoula Crunch.” Plans reviewed by the Associated Press in November had suggested an initial goal of 5,000 arrests
