Overview
- Troops begin arriving before New Year’s and will remain through the end of February 2026 to support security for New Year’s Eve, the Sugar Bowl and Mardi Gras in an enhanced French Quarter zone.
- Guard members will augment the New Orleans Police Department and Louisiana State Police and will support federal partners including the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, according to the Pentagon.
- Units that had been operating in Washington, D.C., will return at the end of the month to join the New Orleans mission, providing additional manpower.
- The deployment follows Gov. Jeff Landry’s request for federally funded support made in September and represents a smaller mobilization than the up to 1,000 troops he initially sought.
- The move coincides with a Supreme Court block on a Chicago National Guard plan and with an ongoing DHS immigration operation in New Orleans, drawing scrutiny given recent declines in violent crime.