Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday she did not agree with deploying the National Guard from various Republican-led states to the district.
The governors of Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, and West Virginia have sent National Guard troops to the capital, in addition to the 800 Washington, D.C. National Guard troops currently in the district. This brings the total to 1,700 National Guard members, set to be on duty in Washington, D.C., after President Donald Trump federalized the local police department and sent hundreds of federal law enforcement agents to the district.
“This doesn’t make sense. The numbers on the ground in the district don’t support 1,000 people from other states coming to Washington, D.C.,” Bowser said, adding, “This is not about something that fits into logic.”
“The question is really not for us. It’s for why the military would be deployed in an American city, to police Americans. That’s the question, and it’s not for me,” she said.
She noted that as mayor, she does not “have any authority over the D.C. guard or any other guards.”
“But I think it is, kind of makes the point that this is not about D.C. crime,” she added.
Bowser previously said she planned to follow Washington’s home rule charter and comply with Trump’s direction regarding the Metropolitan Police Department. Section 740 of the district’s Home Rule Act allows the president to take over MPD for up to 30 days without congressional approval.
Bowser noted on Monday that she did not believe the district’s home rule was at risk, specifically because of Trump’s order, but implied she has always been concerned. She asserted that “there is no takeover,” but that there is “a surge in law enforcement.”
Officials in the Trump administration have said they have arrested nearly 400 people in the week since Trump authorized the guard and federalized the MPD.
Around half of those arrests have involved undocumented immigrants. On immigration, Bowser said that federal law enforcement should be focused on violent crime.
“If this is really about immigration enforcement, I think the administration should make that plain,” she noted.
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Bowser additionally called for “comprehensive immigration reform.”
“There needs to be a pathway to citizenship for hardworking people who have made this country their home,” she said. “And we need to separate the discussion of enforcement against violent offenders and everyday hardworking people who have made this country their home.”