WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — Soldiers and Airmen stood in the back of a black minivan, armed with black trash bags and red-handled garbage collectors, and headed to the park around the recreation center.
For the Washington National Guard contingent stationed in the nation's capital, it was the 119th improvement project since the unit was called up in August as part of President Donald Trump's program. federal law enforcement intervention. Their work includes cleaning up graffiti in parks, collecting trash and repairing recreation facilities. There are plans to help a school reading program in an often overlooked area of the city.
Hundreds of National Guard troops still stationed in the city – sometimes armed – unnerve some residents, who see them as a manifestation of presidential interference in law enforcement. And while there is deep mistrust of the motives behind the overall deployment, others view the Guard in Washington, especially its local contingent's focus on efforts to improve society, with some approval.
“I'm glad to see the help,” said Sabir Abdul, 68, a resident who regularly cleans up trash and debris from the park around the Fort Stevens Recreation Center in northwest D.C. “They have lives, but now they are here helping us.”
Mixed feelings about the Guard deployment have forced local officials to strike a balance between pushing back against what they see as a blatant violation of the city's already limited autonomy and acknowledging that the District could use some help, at least from the D.C. National Guard contingent.
The lawsuit was filed by the District of Columbia Attorney General. The challenge to the rollout — part of a wave of lawsuits in many cities facing federal law enforcement intervention — will be heard Friday.
Hundreds of National Guard troops have been in Washington since Trump issued an emergency order in August, kicking off what he said was crime fighting mission it also included the federal government takeover of the local police department. Order expired last monthHowever, approximately 2,000 National Guard troops from the District of Columbia and eight states remain in the city, with most contingents saying they plan to withdraw troops by the end of November.
The troops became a fixture in the city, patrolling subway stations and neighborhoods and supporting other federal law enforcement agencies in operations that led to hundreds of arrests and sparked fear in many communities, especially among immigrants. Trump, a Republican, praised the campaign for reducing crime rates that were already falling.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat whose city budget and laws are determined by Congress, walked a fine line between appeasing Trump and not deploying troops. She acknowledged that the campaign helped reduce crime, but said deploying the National Guard out of state was not an “effective use of those resources.”
In a recent brief in a D.C. court case, Attorney General Brian Schwalb argued that Guard units act “like federal military police.” The document also indicates that Washington's Guard plans to remain in the city until at least next summer.
For some, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.
In the 8th department, which is located in historic but underserved area In a county east of the Anacostia River, local officials accepted the D.C. Guard's invitation to help improve the community, despite their general opposition to the presence of armed National Guard troops in the city.
Advisory Neighborhood Commission member Joseph Johnson said soldiers from the local Guard unit have been in his ward multiple times, “helping where we need help,” including cleaning up around the school and in several areas in the Anacostia area. Community members saw that “these are people just like them. They live here in our communities for the most part.”
Local officials are grappling with whether the help the local unit is offering can be separated from the Trump administration's growing threats to use uniformed troops on the streets of American cities. Some have zero tolerance, concerned that supporting even the Home Guard's improvement efforts could be seen as tacit approval of Trump's use of federal troops to support law enforcement.
“Trump is testing the system to see how far he can really go,” Johnson said.
The D.C. Guard contingent, which is overseen by the president, has been focused on quality of life issues in the city since many troops come from the communities where they now work, said interim D.C. Guard commander Brig. General Leland Blanchard II.
Blanchard said the deployment will continue “until the president decides it's time for us to do something else.”
“We absolutely want to continue to partner with our own city, our people here in D.C.,” he told The Associated Press.
In the diverse Shepherd Park neighborhood, news that gardaí were arriving to carry out cleanup work sparked an outcry on social media. Borough Commissioner Paula Edwards was forced to explain that no local officials had invited them.
“We feel like their presence is intimidating to a lot of our constituents,” Edwards said in an interview. She said the situation is difficult as Guard members follow orders. She also said D.C. Guard members are different from other state contingents because they know the nuances and character of the city. She said public sentiment in her community ranged from “let the troops clear the park” to those trying to shame them.
Edwards said that under other circumstances she would be happy to have the Guard there, but “not until after this deployment is over.”
Valencia Mohammed, who heads the local tenants' association, said she asked security to help with the cleanup. She just wanted the park to be clean, including potentially dangerous items that could harm children. Mohammed, 74, said she usually cleaned the park with other elderly residents.
She said she believed local officials opposed the Guard's cleanup efforts because they “didn't want to appear to support any of Trump's efforts, even if it was good for the community.”
“I just wanted our park to be decorated,” she said, “which none of the commission members did.”
___
Follow AP's coverage of the District of Columbia at https://apnews.com/hub/district-of-columbia.
