Washington, D.C., is pursuing legal action against the Trump Administration concerning its of National Guard personnel to the city, contending that the endeavor contravenes bans on military participation in local policing.
“Deploying the National Guard for law enforcement purposes is not only needless and unwelcome, but it is also perilous and detrimental to the District and its inhabitants,” stated D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb. “No American urban area should have the U.S. military – particularly out-of-state military forces who lack accountability to local residents and are untrained in local law enforcement – policing its thoroughfares.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson responded to the legal challenge by asserting that the President was acting within his “lawful authority” to deploy the National Guard. “This lawsuit is merely another attempt—to the detriment of D.C. residents and visitors—to undermine the President’s highly successful operations to curb violent crime in D.C.,” Jackson conveyed in a written statement.
The legal action, submitted on Thursday by Schwalb, commences nearly a month after the President over 2,000 federal troops to the nation’s capital, following his declaration of a public safety emergency prompted by crime in the city.
It follows a federal judge’s Tuesday that the President violated the law when he deployed troops to Los Angeles earlier this summer, subsequent to a series of demonstrations against immigration raids in the city. The ruling, set to become effective on September 12, will forbid the Pentagon from deploying troops for arrests, searches, or crowd control in L.A. without Congressional approval.
Trump has meanwhile threatened to dispatch the National Guard to other Democratic-led cities in “blue” states, including , , as well as , which is led by a Democratic mayor but lies in a Republican-governed state. Chicago authorities are reportedly preparing for a potential deployment, though it’s uncertain when—or if—federal troops will arrive.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser earlier this week instructing city officials to continue collaborating with federal law enforcement “to the maximum extent legally permissible” beyond the expiration of Trump’s emergency declaration and authority over the city’s police force. Bowser stated that the directive was intended to “provide the pathway forward beyond the Presidential emergency.” The mayor that the order ensured that only Congress could extend the presence of federal law enforcement in D.C.
The Trump-declared crime emergency in D.C. is scheduled to conclude on September 10. National Guard troops in D.C., however, are anticipated to remain in the area through December, though an official extension of their deployment has not been finalized.
