National Guard to patrol New Orleans for New Year's a year after deadly attack
Source: AP
Updated 7:47 PM EST, December 29, 2025
NEW ORLEANS, La. (AP) — A National Guard deployment in New Orleans authorized by President Donald Trump will begin Tuesday as part of a heavy security presence for New Year’s celebrations a year after an attack on revelers on Bourbon Street killed 14 people, officials said Monday.
The deployment in New Orleans follows high-profile National Guard missions the Trump administration launched in other cities this year, including in Washington and Memphis, Tennessee. But the sight of National Guard troops is not unusual in New Orleans, where troops earlier this year also helped bolster security for the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras.
“It’s no different than what we’ve seen in the past,” New Orleans police spokesperson Reese Harper said.
The Guard is expected be confined to the French Quarter area popular with tourists and won’t be engaging in assisting in immigration enforcement, Harper said. Guardsmen will operate similar to earlier this year when they patrolled the area around Bourbon Street following the vehicle-ramming attack on Jan. 1.
The Guard is not the only federal law enforcement agency in the city. Since the start of the month, federal agents have been carrying out an immigration crackdown that has led to the arrest of at least several hundred people. Harper stressed that the National Guard will not be engaging in immigration enforcement. “This is for visibility and just really to keep our citizens safe,” Harper said. “It’s just another tool in the toolbox and another layer of security.”
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/new-orleans-new-years-national-guard-e4037cedc7eddad6891ae30a4df2c740
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