New Orleans, Jan. 2 – In downtown, dozens marched against Trump’s National Guard and ICE occupation. The action started with a rally in front of Armstrong Park. The march went through busy parts of the French Quarter and Central Business District, briefly shutting down several blocks of Canal Street.
Unlike Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry – who asks “how high?” before Trump even says jump – these protesters are not happy with the federal government rampaging through our communities with armed agents.
This is happening as violent crime in the city continues to drop: 2025 saw one of the lowest violent crime rates since the 1960s. And other crimes like burglary were down 50%. The National Guard is not here because of an out-of-control crime situation. Trump has sent them as a threat to the people. He has never made it a secret that he wants mass repression against anyone resisting his rule.
And they are here to protect ICE, which is clearly not going after violent criminals, either. Independent analyses have found that only 5% of the people ICE is kidnapping had a violent crime conviction. Seventy-three percent had no criminal conviction whatsoever. They are arresting parents bringing their kids to school and our neighbors who work hard for low wages, just hoping for a better life for their families. This is not about keeping anyone safe. It is about dividing and repressing working-class people.
And none of this is making grocery prices lower, by the way. Tech billionaires and private prison owners with ICE contracts laugh all the way to the bank when we fall for the lies and believe that our immigrant neighbors are the ones somehow keeping us down. But anything to keep us from looking at what said billionaires are doing.
At the rally before the march, Toni with Freedom Road Socialist Organization drew a connection between the occupation of majority-Black New Orleans and the violence committed by the declining U.S. empire abroad. She began with the chant, “No boots on the ground, no bombs in the air, U.S. out of everywhere!,” then continued:
“That includes Palestine, that includes Africa, that includes Asia, that includes New Orleans, because we don’t need military occupation. The white supremacist militarism that says that they can take their guns, bombs, and tanks, and GIs, and just send them all over this world and use them against the masses of the people – because they think they have divine right – that’s over.
“That time of empire and white supremacy is over. Now is the time of the people. Now is the time for us to take a stand.
“They like to say that us Brown people and people from oppressed nations in this country are a minority, to be subjugated to the rules of their racist minoritarian rule. But in New Orleans we are not a minority. Black people, Brown people – we are the majority in this city!
“And in our movement, we take from the tradition of Malcolm X, who also fought for Black self determination. Brown people, Black people, we are not minorities. We are the majority of this world! We are the majority of this city! And we are not going to sit idly by while some few people want to pillage our city, pillage our nations for the benefit of the billionaires. That’s why we’re standing up and fighting back.”
This protest was endorsed by Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Queer and Trans Community Action Project, Communist Party USA, Workers Voice Socialist Movement and other organizations.
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