The Trump administration is deploying 350 National Guard troops to New Orleans ahead of the New Year, launching another federal deployment in the city at the same time that an immigration crackdown led by Border Patrol is underway.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Tuesday that Guard members, as they have in other deployments in large cities, will be tasked with supporting federal law enforcement partners, including the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. Parnell added that the National Guard troops will be deployed through February.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, praised President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for coordinating the deployment and predicted the Guard's presence would have a positive impact.
“It’s going to help us further crack down on the violence here in the city of New Orleans and elsewhere around Louisiana,” Landry said in an appearance on the Fox News' “The Will Cain Show.” "And so a big shoutout to both of them.”
Critics have argued a National Guard deployment is unwarranted and could cause fear in the community, and they point out that New Orleans has actually seen a decrease in violent crime rates.
The deployment of the National Guard to the Democrat-led city comes as Border Patrol agents have been carrying out an immigration crackdown since the beginning of the month. According to the Department of Homeland Security, agents have arrested several hundred people during the first couple weeks of what is expected to be a months-long operation that has a goal of 5,000 arrests.
Back in September, Landry asked Trump to send a 1,000 federally funded troops to Louisiana cities, citing concerns about crime. Landry has praised Trump for sending troops to other cities, including Washington and Memphis, Tennessee.
The president has also taken a shine to Landry. Trump on Sunday announced he was appointing the governor to serve as his special envoy to Greenland, the strategic, vast, semi-autonomous territory of Denmark that Trump has said the U.S. needs to take over.
New Orleans has been on pace for much of the year to have its lowest number of murders in decades, according to preliminary data from the city’s police department. There have been 97 homicides in 2025 as of Nov. 1, including 14 revelers who were killed on New Year’s Day during a truck attack on Bourbon Street.
A U.S. Army veteran driving a pickup truck that bore the flag of the Islamic State group wrought carnage on New Orleans’ raucous New Year’s celebration as he steered around a police blockade and slammed into revelers before being shot dead by police.
There were 124 homicides last year and 193 in 2023, according to city figures. Armed robberies, aggravated assaults, carjackings, shootings and property crimes have also trended downward.
New Orleans is no stranger to having National Guard members in the city. In January, 100 Guard members were sent to the city to help with security measures following the New Year’s Day truck attack. Guard members were also present for major events in the city this year, including the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras.
FILE - Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry records a social media video outside the White House, Monday, March 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE - Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry speaks to reporters at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La., Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
BRISTOL, Pa. (AP) — A thunderous explosion at a nursing home just outside Philadelphia collapsed part of the building, sent flames shooting out and left people injured and trapped inside, authorities said.
The explosion happened at Bristol Health & Rehab Center in Bristol Township, just as a utility crew had been on site looking for a gas leak, although the cause of the explosion was unclear several hours later, as was the extent of the casualties.
A plume of black smoke rose from the nursing home, as emergency responders, fire trucks and ambulances from across the region rushed there, joined by earthmoving equipment.
Authorities said there were injuries, but had yet to say whether there were any fatalities.
Police Lt. Sean Cosgrove said he didn’t know if anyone was missing, and that residents had been evacuated by emergency responders, bystanders and staff.
“A lot of the details at this point are still unknown,” he told reporters at the scene.
Bucks County emergency management officials said they received the report of an explosion at approximately 2:17 p.m. and said a portion of the building was reported to have collapsed. Ruth Miller, a Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokesperson, said her agency had been informed that people were trapped inside.
Willie Tye, who lives about a block away, said he was sitting at home watching a basketball game on TV when he heard a “loud kaboom.”
“I thought an airplane or something came and fell on my house,” Tye said.
He got up to go look and saw “fire everywhere” and people escaping the building. The explosion looked like it happened in the kitchen area of the nursing home, he said. Tye said some of the people who live or work there didn’t make it out.
“Just got to keep praying for them,” Tye said.
The cause of the explosion was unclear.
The local gas utility, PECO, said its crews had responded to reports of a gas odor at the nursing home shortly after 2 p.m.
“While crews were on site, an explosion occurred at the facility. PECO crews shut off natural gas and electric service to the facility to ensure the safety of first responders and local residents,” the utility said in a statement.
Nils Hagen-Frederiksen, press secretary at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, said investigators from the safety division were headed to the scene.
Hagen-Frederiksen said first responders and emergency management officials were describing it as a gas explosion, but that won’t be confirmed until his agency can examine the scene up close.
Musuline Watson, who said she was a certified nursing assistant the facility, told WPVI-TV/ABC 6 that, over the weekend, she and others there smelled gas, but “there was no heat in the room, so we didn’t take it to be anything.”
The 174-bed nursing home is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Philadelphia. Its owner, Saber Healthcare Group, said it was working with local emergency authorities. The facility had been known until recently as Silver Lake Healthcare Center.
The latest state inspection report for the facility was in October and the Pennsylvania Department of Health found that it was not in compliance with several state regulations.
The inspection report said the facility failed to provide an accurate set of floor plans and to properly maintain several stairways, including storing multiple paint buckets and a bed frame under landings.
It also said the facility failed to maintain portable fire extinguishers on one of the three levels and failed to provide the required “smoke barrier partitions,” which are designed to contain smoke on two floors. It also said it didn’t properly store oxygen cylinders on two of three floors.
According to Medicare.gov, the facility underwent a standard fire safety inspection in September 2024, during which no citations were issued. But Medicare’s overall rating of the facility is listed as “much below average,” with poor ratings for health inspections in particular.
Associated Press reporter Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H., and Michael Casey in Boston contributed to this report. Levy and Scolforo reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
First responders work the scene of an explosion and fire at Bristol Health & Rehab Center, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025, in Bristol, Pa. (Monica Herndon/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
Montgomery County search and rescue join first responders at the scene of an explosion and fire at Bristol Health & Rehab Center, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025, in Bristol Township, Pa. (Monica Herndon/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
First responders work the scene of an explosion and fire at Bristol Health & Rehab Center, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025, in Bristol Township, Pa. (Monica Herndon/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
CORRECTS NAME OF FACILITY - First responders gather at the scene of an explosion at Bristol Health & Rehab Center in Bristol Township, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)
First responders gather at the scene of an explosion at Silver Lake Healthcare Center in Bristol Township, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)
First responders are on the scene of a fire after an explosion at a nursing home in Bristol Township, Pa., on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (WPVI-TV/6ABC via AP)
