Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, expressed doubt about the legality of the federal deployment of the National Guard to cities nationwide, as President Trump has acted to dispatch troops in response to crime.
Speaking Wednesday at the Fortune Most Powerful Women conference in Washington, the mayor was questioned about her lack of support for employing the National Guard to combat crime.
“I don’t believe it’s legal, to begin with, for the National Guard to police Americans on American soil,” Bowser stated.
The mayor further explained that the National Guard in D.C. is under the president’s command, whereas a state’s National Guard is typically under the governor’s control.
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“The function and manner in which we utilize the National Guard — unlike most states where a governor can activate the head of their National Guard — in D.C., our D.C. National Guard is accountable to the president,” Bowser noted.
“While I can request the National Guard, their operations are entirely federal. Thus, D.C. differs somewhat from other locations regarding the D.C. National Guard,” she added.
The mayor commented: “We utilize the Guard to address emergencies. We utilize the Guard for large-scale events. We do not utilize the Guard to enforce our local laws.”
In recent months, Trump has increased the presence of federal law enforcement in Washington, D.C., in an effort to reduce crime. Hundreds of federal agents and National Guard troops have been sent to D.C. streets as part of the federal government’s involvement in the district.
Trump has also deployed troops to several other cities led by Democrats, including Chicago. The city, along with Illinois, its home state, challenged the federal government in court over the deployment.
A federal appeals court partially restored federal control over the National Guard in Illinois but prevented Trump from deploying troops on Chicago’s streets or throughout Illinois.
Trump had also deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles during the summer to address anti-ICE protests resulting from federal immigration raids targeting migrant workers at local businesses. California officials filed suit over the federal deployment.
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Bowser expressed in her remarks on Wednesday that Americans in Washington and across the nation should be apprehensive about the implications of the deployments for the nation’s democracy.
“We should all be troubled by the use of the military because it presents a risky precedent,” she said.
“You use it for crowd management one day, or presence the next — it’s a small step to using it in other ways that might compromise the very essence of American democracy,” Bowser concluded.
