Members of the District of Columbia National Guard began their first night of operations in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday as part of President Donald Trump’s anti-crime crackdown in the nation’s capital.
Troops were seen leaving the D.C. Armory earlier Tuesday and by the evening a group of about a dozen Guard personnel stood with five parked military Humvee trucks near the Washington Monument before later departing for an unknown location.
“We just did a presence patrol to be amongst the people, to be seen,” Master Sgt. Cory Boroff, one of the Guard troops near the Monument, told The New York Times. “Of the people, for the people in D.C.,” he added.
Officials have not disclosed the exact number of troops deployed to the streets on Tuesday as part of the president’s decision, announced on Monday, to call 800 Guard personnel to the capital to fight what he has described as rampant violent crime in Washington.
Homicide and property crime figures are down compared with the same period in 2024, according to municipal data, with violent crime at a 30-year low following a spike in 2023.
The Independent has contacted the D.C. Guard and the White House for comment on the nature and extent of their operations so far.
More troops are expected to continue arriving throughout the week.
Among the 800 called to Washington, between 100 and 200 will serve “supporting law enforcement” the Defense Department said in a statement on Monday.
The troops have been activated under Title 32, which allows them to make arrests and avoid running afoul of the general prohibition on the military being involved in domestic law enforcement.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the troops would not be involved in arrests.
“Under Title 32, which is the authorization they’ll be using, they have broad latitude.” he told Fox News on Monday. “But they’re not going to be involved in law enforcement functions.”
The deployment is expected to last through September 25, according to a memo obtained by independent journalist Ken Klippenstein.
The troops join an even larger contingent of federal and federalized law enforcement sweeping the capital as part of what the administration is calling the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force.
The task force involves some 500 federal agents from agencies including the FBI, DEA, and Park Police, as well as hundreds more Washington, D.C. police officers the administration has put under federal control for the next 30 days under the District of Columbia Home Rule Act.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the combined force numbered 850 people on the streets on Monday night.
The agents and officers arrested 23 people overnight Monday, for charges including homicide, drunk driving, gun, drug crimes and subway fare evasion.
FBI Director Kash Patel said on X on Tuesday that the FBI was involved in nearly half of the Monday arrests, including arrests for unlawful gun possession, outstanding DUI warrants, and a violation of a restraining order.
The president has threatened to bring similar National Guard deployments to other Democrat-led cities.
“This will go further,” he said announcing his Washington operation on Monday, naming other large Democrat-led cities such as New York, Oakland, and Baltimore.
But Trump has few clear legal routes to doing so.
To send the Guard to Los Angeles over the summer, the administration used a provision for times of rebellion, invasion, or a breakdown in federal law enforcement, which the White House said had occurred amid protests against immigration raids.
The Trump administration’s Washington operation has benefited from the president’s special authorities over the non-state District of Columbia.
Democratic leaders on Trump’s punch list have said they will challenge any attempt to send in the Guard, just as California is doing in federal court.
Trump “has absolutely no right and no legal ability to send troops into the city of Chicago, and so I reject that notion,” Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said on Tuesday.
“You’ve seen that he doesn’t follow the law. I have talked about the fact that the Nazis in Germany in the 30s tore down a constitutional republic in just 53 days,” he added. “It does not take much, frankly, and we have a president who seems hell-bent on doing just that.”
