Louisiana governor requests National Guard for New Orleans, Baton Rouge

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) has requested federal assistance to deploy National Guard troops to combat crime in urban centers throughout the state, weeks after President Donald Trump floated the possibility of sending troops to New Orleans.

In a letter dated Monday, Landry asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for as many as 1,000 troops to be mobilized in Louisiana until September 2026, citing “elevated violent crime rates” in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport as well as “critical personnel shortages within local law enforcement.”

The Trump administration has deployed military force in unprecedented ways in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and other U.S. cities, despite falling crime rates and opposition from Democratic leaders in many of the jurisdictions.

In New Orleans, too, crime rates have decreased significantly this year. After a pandemic-era spike in killings, the city’s murder rate has fallen to lows not seen since the 1970s.

In Baton Rouge, the city’s crime data on Tuesday showed slightly fewer homicides this year than the previous year, while the number of felony arrests so far this year was 13.5 percent lower than it was this time last year.

“The proposed mission and scope for the Louisiana National Guard would be to deploy throughout the state to urban centers, supplement law enforcement presence in high-crime areas, provide logistical and communication support, and secure critical infrastructure,” wrote Landry, a Trump ally who has previously expressed support for the idea of sending in troops.

In an email Tuesday, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed that the Pentagon also received a request from the Department of Homeland Security to send troops to Illinois “for assistance to safeguard Federal personnel, property, and functions in the state of Illinois.” He did not say when a decision on whether to grant it would be announced.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker repeated his objections to the White House’s threats to deploy the National Guard in the Chicago area in a news conference on Monday, saying that the decision to send in federal troops “is not about crime or public safety.”

“This is about sowing fear, intimidation, and division among Americans. This is about consolidating power into Donald Trump’s hands,” Pritzker said.

In Democratic-led states, the National Guard deployments have been met with pushback from state officials and in the courts. Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that the deployment to Los Angeles this summer was unlawful, in an narrow opinion that can be appealed by the government. The ruling does not apply to other states, and it allowed the troops to remain in place as litigation continues.

State and city officials in Maryland have also raised objections to Trump’s threats to activate the National Guard in Baltimore. On Saturday, Trump said he would send troops to Portland, Oregon, a move that officials in the state are challenging in court after Hegseth ordered the deployment of 200 National Guard troops for 60 days.

Trump also said earlier this month he wanted to deploy federal troops to Memphis - which, like New Orleans, is a Democratic-run city in a Republican-governed state.

In Louisiana, Landry’s request for assistance cited Title 32, a federal-state status where troops are federally funded but controlled by their state governor. It said the request would remain in place through the next fiscal year, Sept. 30 2026.

His letter closely mirrored a Pentagon plan for sending troops to the state, which The Washington Post first reported two weeks ago. At the time, experts called the plan highly irregular, noting that the internal documents reported by The Post said the Pentagon had not received a formal request from Landry’s office stating a need for assistance.

While New Orleans is run by a Democratic mayor, the cities of Shreveport and Baton Rouge are each administered by Republicans. City officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Tuesday.

In justifying his decision to seek assistance in Louisiana, Landry said that violent crime rates in all three cities - in particular homicide, carjacking and gang-related violence - “significantly exceed” the national average.

The governor’s request echoed the dystopian image of New Orleans outlined by Trump when he floated the prospect of deploying the National Guard to Louisiana earlier this month. “New Orleans is in really bad shape, and the governor wants us to go in,” Trump had said on Fox, claiming: “I can fix that up in a week and a half.”