As more states pledge to send National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., the White House on Tuesday declined to offer a timeline for when federal intervention into policing in the District would end.
President Donald Trump’s federalization of D.C.’s police department and deployment of National Guard troops into District streets began last week in an effort Trump said was necessary to stop crime. The White House has framed its takeover as an unmitigated success — and one without a clear end date.
The White House initially expected the federal takeover to last 30 days, which is the amount of time the president is allotted control without congressional approval, per federal law. Last week, however, Trump said he may extend the takeover well past that limit.
When asked Tuesday about the timeline, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she was unable to provide one.
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Meanwhile, more National Guard troops are preparing to deploy to D.C. On Monday, Tennessee joined five other Republican-led states offering up troops to aid the takeover. In total, Republican governors from Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio have pledged to send 1,100 troops.
Leavitt said Tuesday that multiagency teams have arrested hundreds and cleared dozens of homeless encampments since the beginning of Trump’s federal takeover of the District of Columbia’s police department.
A total of 465 arrests have been made since Aug. 7, Leavitt said, with about half of the “non-illegal alien arrests” occurring in Wards 7 and 8. According to the MPD, violent crime was highest in these two wards in the past year.
Leavitt said teams have cleared 48 homeless encampments to date, including four on Monday. Police “are actively working with city officials to locate and clear additional encampments and remove homeless residents off of Washington streets,” she said.
She also indicated that federal agents will continue working with the MPD to detain and deport undocumented immigrants.
“If federal law enforcement, with the help of the Metropolitan Police Department, come across illegal aliens, of course we are going to abide by this administration’s policy of law and order, and we are going to remove illegal criminals from our nation’s capital,” Leavitt said.
Washington officials have said the mobilization is disproportionate, pointing to data that put violent crime at a 30-year low last year. Trump has said without evidence that those crime statistics are inaccurate.
The District’s attorney general, Brian Schwalb, sued the Trump administration last week after Attorney General Pam Bondi installed a former Drug Enforcement Administration head as chief of the District’s police department, a change that was blocked after negotiations took place between both parties in court on Friday.
Democrats in Congress have introduced a joint resolution to end the takeover.
Leavitt accused Democratic opponents of the takeover of supporting criminals.
“While Democrats continue to coddle violent criminals, President Trump and this administration are focused on putting them behind bars and unapologetically standing up for the safety of law-abiding American citizens,” Leavitt said. “The White House will continue to provide all of you with the results of this operation in the days ahead.”
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