Overview
- Roughly 350 Louisiana National Guard members are mobilizing to New Orleans in time for New Year’s and will remain through Feb. 28, 2026, covering the Sugar Bowl and Mardi Gras.
- The deployment focuses on a uniformed presence in the French Quarter’s enhanced security zone and supplements the New Orleans Police Department and Troop NOLA during peak events.
- Pentagon officials say the mission supports federal law enforcement partners, including the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, in enforcing federal law.
- The move coincides with DHS’s Operation Catahoula Crunch in New Orleans, which targets immigration violations and has already produced several hundred arrests.
- Guard members will operate under Gov. Jeff Landry and Maj. Gen. Thomas Friloux, with some troops returning from Washington, D.C., as the state-requested model contrasts with a Supreme Court block on a Chicago deployment and draws criticism given falling local crime rates.