Trump says National Guard will be sent to New Orleans

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President Donald Trump said Tuesday that National Guard troops will soon head to New Orleans and bring another federal surge to the city that is already awaiting a separate immigration crackdown that is expected to begin this week.

Trump did not say how many troops would be sent to New Orleans or exactly when they would arrive. Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who asked the Trump administration in September for up to 1,000 troops to fight crime, told reporters Monday that he expected the Guard to arrive in New Orleans before Christmas.

“Gov. Landry — a great guy, a great governor — he’s asked for help in New Orleans. And we’re going to go there in a couple of weeks,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

Landry, a staunch Trump ally, has said he welcomes federal intervention in Democratic-run New Orleans, citing concerns about elevated violent crime rates even though local police officials say crime is down. Separately, Landry posted on social media this week that “We Welcome the Swamp Sweep in Louisiana,” referring to the Border Patrol-led operation that aims to arrest 5,000 people over the coming weeks.

Opponents argue that deployment of federal troops or agents in Louisiana is unwarranted, especially as some cities have actually seen a decrease in violent crime rates — namely New Orleans, which is on pace to have one of its safest years, statistically, since the 1970s.

In September, Landry requested federally funded National Guard troops be sent to Louisiana. In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Landry said there have been “elevated violent crime rates” in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport along with shortages in law enforcement personnel.

Landry also said the state’s vulnerability to natural disasters makes the issue more challenging, and the extra support would be especially helpful for major events, including Mardi Gras and college football bowl games.

Louisiana National Guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Noel Collins declined to comment Tuesday.

In 2022, New Orleans had the dubious distinction of being considered the “murder capital of the country,” reporting the highest per-capita homicide rate in the nation. That year there were 266 murders — a rate of 70 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Three years later, however, shootings, carjackings and armed robberies have plummeted. While there has been a spike of homicides in recent weeks, the city is still on pace to have its lowest number in nearly 50 years, according to crime data from the police department. As of early November, the New Orleans Police Department reported 97 murders.

Mayor-elect Helena Moreno, a Democrat who takes office in January, has firmly rejected the idea of a National Guard deployment in the blue city and has expressed concern that a federal immigration enforcement surge will lead to rights violations. She did not provide comment on the impending deployment.

Outgoing Mayor LaToya Cantrell, a Democrat facing federal corruption charges, previously said the city was open to working with the federal government to improve public safety.

A spokesperson for Cantrell, Terry Davis, told the AP in a written statement that the city and its police “have a track record of working collaboratively” with the National Guard and state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Other New Orleans officials have warned that troops could disrupt unique cultural traditions, such as the frequent brass band parades in the streets that are known as second-lines or jeopardize hard-won relationships between communities and the police.

In January, 100 guard members were sent to the city to help with security measures following a New Year’s Day truck attack that killed 14 people and injured dozens of other revelers on Bourbon Street.

In September, Landry also suggested that federally funded National Guard troops should be sent to Baton Rouge and Shreveport, and Monday indicated troops would be sent to cities beyond New Orleans.

In Baton Rouge, the capital, Republican Mayor Sid Edwards said this month that extra assets could provide “much-needed boots on the ground” amid a police shortage.

Although homicides are on pace to decrease from the previous year there as well, the city has struggled with gun violence, with bystanders caught in crossfire made worse by the use of machine gun conversion devices. A recent multiagency initiative to crack down on violent crime resulted in more than 100 arrests and the seizure of guns.

In conservative Shreveport, the hometown of U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican Mayor Tom Arceneaux told The Associated Press in October that violent crime has significantly decreased. Arceneaux said he was willing to work with the National Guard but would prefer receiving state police officers instead.

The Trump administration launched immigration enforcement operations in New Orleans and Minneapolis on Wednesday, a day after President Donald Trump said he would be sending National Guard troops to Louisiana.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement about the New Orleans operation that it is “targeting criminal aliens roaming free thanks to sanctuary policies that force local authorities to ignore U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest detainers,” or requests to hold people authorities have arrested for ICE.

Trump had not specified as of Wednesday morning how many guard troops he would send.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that those targeted in New Orleans include people released after being arrested for home invasion, armed robbery, grand theft auto and rape.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, has said he welcomes the administration’s intervention in the Democrat-run city, which has logged significant drops in crime and is on pace to have its lowest number of homicides in nearly 50 years, according to crime data from the police department.

Shortly after the DHS announcement, the FBI in New Orleans said that federal agents and state police will launch a joint effort to “deter assaults on federal officers and attempts to obstruct law enforcement action” during DHS’ immigration enforcement in the city.

Ahead of the start of immigration operations in New Orleans, some of the state’s immigrants said they were afraid and were taking precautions, with one Honduran immigrant telling Noticias Telemundo he hadn’t left his home in two weeks. “We’ve stopped going to work because our fear is that we’ll be stopped,” the immigrant, who was not shown on camera and whose name was withheld, said. “We’re shut in, and like me there are many.”

On Wednesday, New Orleans resident Rocío Tirado said she was delivering groceries and paychecks to families who were too scared to leave their homes. “They’re afraid because everybody’s hiding,” she told NBC News.

Tirado said only eight of 140 children had come to soccer practice Tuesday night; many of their parents are immigrants.

“This is just sad,” she said. “It’s horrible to see it.”

Tirado added she has been waking up at 6 a.m. to drive some of the children to school because their parents are too scared to leave their homes.

“Some of these people have a work authorization and they have Social Security,” she said, and they are still too scared.

It’s also affecting children, Tirado said, recalling a child who told her she called her mom three times from school and got scared the one time she didn’t pick up. “She was scared her mom was gone,” she said.

The state and New Orleans had seen growth in their Latino and immigrant populations since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when citizens and noncitizens arrived to clean and restore the city and surrounding areas. Much of the state’s Latino population is based in Jefferson Parish, where Hispanics are 19% of the population. The parish includes the city of Kenner, where Hispanics are about 30% of the population.

The Trump administration also began an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis, a senior law enforcement official told NBC News Wednesday.

Confirmation of that launch follows reports that the administration was planning an immigration crackdown this week in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, where a number of Somali immigrants and their family members live.

A senior law enforcement administration official told NBC News that ICE officers are not specifically targeting Somali immigrants and their families but may be arresting some who they allege have violated immigration laws.