This story was originally published by the Louisiana Illuminator.
Members of the Louisiana National Guard, who have been deployed to support crime fighting efforts in New Orleans since the start of the year, will remain in the city through August, Gov. Jeff Landry announced Monday.
The governor said the National Guard’s extended deployment has the support of the Trump administration, indicating the federal government would continue to cover the cost of its mission in New Orleans. The Federal Title 32 order from President Donald Trump keeps the governor and Maj. Gen. Thomas Friloux, adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard, in charge of the troops.
“This continued deployment will help us combat violence in New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana,” Landry said in a statement. “Since taking office, we’ve made real progress in reducing crime in Louisiana, but the job isn’t over.”
Guard members have been visible in the city’s downtown area, most notably at French Quarter checkpoints. During Carnival season, the National Guard joined federal law enforcement agencies in securing the Uptown parade route.
In his State of the Union address last week, President Trump mentioned his decision to send National Guard members to the nation’s “most dangerous cities,” calling its work in New Orleans a “big success.”
Since peaking in 2022 with nearly 1,600 incidents, violent crime in New Orleans has declined 62% as of 2025 when there were 600 reported offenses, based on an analysis of NOPD data. Murders in the city were down from 280 four years ago to 145 last year, matching the 2024 homicide count. The prior low in recent years had been 124 in 2019.
The additional six-month deployment will involve approximately 120 National Guard members, the governor said. That’s down from the 350 that were working during the Mardi Gras schedule.
The extension also has the support of New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno and Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick.
Moreno expressed her interest in continuing to partner with military and federal agencies to bolster the city’s law enforcement efforts for its high-turnout tourism calendar. The National Guard will remain in the city for the upcoming French Quarter Festival this month and the Jazz and Heritage Festival that spans late April and early May.
“It exemplifies the gold standard for coordinated security efforts’ during major events,” Moreno said in a statement from the governor’s office. “Strategic deployment of federal resources for major events has made a meaningful difference.”
The Louisiana National Guard has had a frequent presence in New Orleans since the start of 2025, when its members were assigned to the city after a Jan. 1 terror attack on Bourbon Street killed 14 pedestrians. They remained in the city to supplement law enforcement and anti-terror efforts for the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras over the next two months.
For the past two years, the federal government has given Mardi Gras its highest Special Event Assessment Rating, SEAR-1, to provide support needed to reduce its risk to a terrorist threat.
This nine-month period would be the longest National Guard deployment to New Orleans since more than 30,000 soldiers from several states were sent to the city and region after Hurricane Katrina after its Aug. 29, 2005, landfall. Guard members were involved in search-and-rescue missions and policing a city left without basic services for months. The last of those guard members were removed in February 2009.
