WASHINGTON (AP) — The soldiers and airmen stood at the back of the black minivan, arming themselves — with black garbage bags and red-handled trash pickers — and headed for the park around the recreation center.
For the Washington, D.C., contingent of the National Guard deployed to the nation’s capital, it marked their 119th beautification project since the unit was called up in August as part of President Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement intervention. Their work has included cleaning graffiti in parks, picking up trash and refurbishing a recreation center. There are plans to help a school reading program in an often overlooked area of the city.
The hundreds of National Guard troops still deployed to the city — at times armed — have unnerved some residents, who see in them the manifestation of presidential overreach on law enforcement. And while there is deep mistrust over the motives of the overall deployment, others view the Guard in Washington, especially its local contingent’s focus on community improvement efforts, with a measure of approval.
“I’m glad for the help,” said Sabir Abdul, 68, a resident who regularly cleans the trash and debris in the park around the Fort Stevens Recreation Center in Northwest D.C. “They have lives, but now they are here, helping us.”
The mixed feelings over the Guard deployment have forced local officials to strike a balance between opposing what they see as a flagrant violation of the city’s already limited autonomy and the acknowledgment that the district could use the help that at least the D.C. National Guard contingent has been providing.
A lawsuit filed by D.C.’s attorney general challenging the deployment — part of a wave of legal action in multiple cities facing their own federal law enforcement interventions — will be heard on Friday.
The Guard deployment in DC is among several around the country
Hundreds of National Guard troops have been in Washington, D.C., since Trump issued an emergency order in August, which launched what he said was a crime-fighting mission that also included the federal takeover of the local police department. The order expired last month, but the roughly 2,000 National Guard troops from D.C. and eight states remain in the city, with most contingents saying they plan to withdraw by the end of November.
The troops have become a fixture of the city, patrolling metro stations and neighborhoods and supporting other federal law enforcement agencies in operations that have led to hundreds of arrests and sparked fear in many communities, especially among immigrants. Trump, a Republican, has praised the campaign as having reduced crime rates, which were already falling.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat whose city budget and laws are determined by Congress, has walked a fine line between appeasing Trump and pushing back on the deployment. She has acknowledged that the campaign has helped push down crime, while arguing that the out-of-state National Guard deployment has not been “an efficient use of those resources.”
In a recent brief filed in the D.C. legal case, Attorney General Brian Schwalb argued that the Guard units are operating “as a federal military police force.” The document also indicated that there were plans for the D.C. Guard to potentially remain in the city at least through next summer.
For some, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Grappling with mixed feelings about the Guard
In Ward 8, which is in the historic but underserved area of the district east of the Anacostia River, local officials have taken up an invitation from the D.C. Guard to help with community improvement despite their overall opposition to the presence of armed National Guard troops in the city.
Advisory neighborhood commission member Joseph Johnson said troops from the local Guard unit have been to his ward multiple times, “helping where we need help,” including cleaning around a school, as well as several areas in the Anacostia neighborhood. Community members have seen that “these are people just like them. They live here in our communities for the most part.”
Local officials have grappled over whether the help the local unit is offering can be separated from the Trump administration’s increasing threats to use uniformed troops on the streets of American cities. Some have zero tolerance, concerned that supporting even the local Guard’s beautification efforts can be seen as a tacit endorsement of Trump’s use of federal troops in supporting law enforcement activities.
“Trump is testing the system to see how far he can really go,” Johnson said.
The D.C. Guard contingent, which is controlled by the president, has been focused on quality of life issues in the city because many of the troops come from the communities they are now working in, said D.C. Guard interim commanding officer Brig. Gen. Leland Blanchard II.
Blanchard said the deployment would go on “until the president determines it’s time for us to go do something different.”
“We absolutely want to continue to partner with our own city, our own people here in the District of Columbia,” he told The Associated Press.
A city park embodies the tensions over the Guard
In the diverse Shepherd Park neighborhood, news that the Guard was arriving for cleaning efforts sparked a firestorm of opposition in community social media groups. Neighborhood commissioner Paula Edwards was forced to explain that no local official had invited them.
“We feel that their presence is frightening to many of our constituents,” Edwards said in an interview. She said the situation was complex because Guard members are following orders. She also said the D.C. Guard members were distinct from other state contingents because they are aware of the nuances and character of the city. She said public attitudes in her community ranged from “let the troops clean the park” to some who seek to shame them.
Edwards said under different circumstances she would be glad to see the Guard there, but “only after this deployment ends.”
Valencia Mohammed, who leads a local tenants’ association, said she had reached out to the Guard to request help to clean up. She simply wanted the park clean, including potentially dangerous items that could harm children. Mohammed, 74, said she usually cleaned the park, along with other older residents.
She said she believed local officials opposed the Guard’s cleanup efforts because they “did not want to seem supporting any efforts by Trump, even if it was good for the community.”
“I just wanted our park beautified,” she said, “which is something none of the commissioners have done.”
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the District of Columbia at https://apnews.com/hub/district-of-columbia.
