BATON ROUGE – State Senate President Cameron Henry said Friday that he does not believe the National Guard needs to be deployed in New Orleans, but he can see a need for it in Baton Rouge.

“My thought is not to have them come to New Orleans because we have state police there and they are doing a good job,” Henry, a Republican, said during an interview with the LSU Manship School News Service.

The New Orleans Police Department announced a 20% overall decrease in violent crime incidents so far in 2025 compared to 2024. Despite this decrease, President Donald Trump has talked about sending the National Guard to New Orleans.

Gov. Jeff Landry has asked the Pentagon to send 1,000 National Guard members to fight crime in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport.

Henry, who represents parts of Jefferson and Orleans Parish, believes that the National Guard should be sent elsewhere.

“Downtown Baton Rouge has a significant homeless population problem,” Henry said. “Though the National Guard can’t do anything about the homeless population, what they can do something about is the fights and arguments that the homeless are getting into on the street.”

He adds that Baton Rouge brings in a lot of out-of-state guests because of the LSU football games. The money from tourists is necessary to continue to fund programs and services that Louisiana residents need.

“To have a group of homeless people fighting in the middle of the street is not a good message for anyone,” Henry said.

Last month, Landry also addressed the homelessness problem during an interview on Unfiltered With Kiran.

“I think that (majority) of the homeless population is really a group of mentally unstable people that need some institutional care,” Landry said. “Another 10% are, quite frankly, a bunch of criminals that use the homeless population to basically camouflage or to carry out their illegal drug activity, their human trafficking. They prey on those people. And it really is inhumane, and it doesn’t do us any good to have people out there.”

The Pentagon has not responded to Landry’s request. Political leaders in New Orleans, which depends on tourism, have voiced their opposition to having guard troops in their city.

“The National Guard actually doesn’t help toward crime reduction,” said New Orleans Mayor-Elect Helena Moreno, during a debate on Sept. 16. She believes that if federal resources were to be used in New Orleans, then the city’s police chief and local leadership should be consulted as to what the city needs.

Landry sent his request to the Pentagon in late September, leaving the state legislature without any answers.

“Since he mentioned that, we haven’t heard anything from anybody about it,” Henry said.

While the state continues to wait for a response, there are no current plans for deploying the National Guard into these cities.