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More than half the states are contributing National Guard soldiers near the president donald trumpFederal Law Enforcement Initiative in Washington State officials told The Associated Press that target dates for their return have been set for late this fall.
The dates could be extended into late October and November and it is not immediately clear when the other three states will withdraw their troops. But the planned withdrawal suggests the troop surge in the nation’s capital may be headed for a reduction or change in scope.
The plans for contributing states come as Trump is pushing to send troops to other US cities, including Chicago and Portland. oregonEach of which has taken legal action to try to stop any deployment.
The National Guard was activated in DC in August after Trump issued an executive order in which the Republican president declared a state of emergency over crime concerns. The order placed local police departments under the authority of the President for 30 days and then expired when Congress did not renew it.
But about 2,300 Guard members and hundreds of federal law enforcement officers from eight states as well as D.C. remained in the city. According to official figures, more than 4,000 people have been arrested under the operation since August.
Officials in Georgia, Mississippi, South CarolinaOhio and West Virginia all told The Associated Press they have a planned end date for their deployments. The other states with troops in D.C. — Alabama, Louisiana and South Dakota — did not respond to requests for information.
South Carolina, which initially sent 200 troops and now has about 40, said it plans to withdraw by the end of October, according to Maj. Carla Evans, a South Carolina Guard spokeswoman.
Ohio, Georgia, Mississippi and West Virginia said they planned to remove their troops by November 30.
The five states together make up more than 80% of the 1,300 out-of-state troops deployed to DC. The D.C. National Guard deployment is made up of about 1,000 forces and their orders have been extended through at least December.
Asked about the planned withdrawal, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Trump’s law enforcement crackdown in the capital had led to a drop in crime. “These are undeniable positive results that everyone can celebrate.”
Trump has declared his anti-crime campaign in the nation’s capital a resounding success. And the data shows that crime has declined during that time, even though rates were already falling. But the long-standing presence of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., has raised questions about Trump’s end game for the deployment.
Guard troops patrol transit hubs and tourist destinations, and as deployments have increased, they have become a fixture of the city’s urban scenes in parks and neighborhoods. Their presence, sometimes armed, is enough to unnerve residents, although no violent incidents have been reported.
News of the planned withdrawal may be a relief to some residents who have watched the unprecedented military deployment become increasingly common.
“This is not normal,” said Joseph Johnson, a local elected official who chairs the neighborhood advisory commission. “We know this should never have happened in the first place.”
A lawsuit brought by the D.C. Attorney General is challenging the deployment, with a hearing scheduled for October 24.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office declined to comment. Bowser has said on several occasions that National Guard deployed from other states “are not an efficient use of those resources.”