D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto asked five newly elected Democratic governors on Thursday to withdraw their National Guard troops from the District once they take office at the start of next year.
The Ward 2 Democrat made the request to the incoming governors of Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, and Texas during a public hearing on the ongoing federal law enforcement presence in the nation’s capital.
“After Tuesday night, the tide is turning,” said Ms. Pinto, who chairs the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety. “I am very hopeful that we now have the partners at the state and congressional level to push back and demand that this unnecessary, harmful and unlawful military presence be removed from the District.”
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She said those five states have 628 troops deployed in the District as part of President Trump’s crime-fighting mission.
Georgia is responsible for the bulk of those guardsmen, with 514 troops, followed by 110 from Iowa. There are only four Guardsmen combined from Nevada, Ohio and Texas.
More than 2,300 National Guard troops from 20 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are patrolling the federal city under orders from Mr. Trump. The D.C. National Guard has also been deployed, adding 750 troops to the mix.
The Guardsmen on duty in the District are being paid by the federal government, but remain under the control of their respective state’s governors. It’s unclear if the governors can recall troops on a whim, as Ms. Pinto’s statement at the hearing suggests.
There is some precedent for governors to pull their troops at a moment’s notice.
For the America 250 celebrations over the summer, the Democratic governors of Kentucky, Hawaii and Maryland sent National Guard troops to the District to help with major events around the monuments.
But Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who sent more than 100 Guardsmen for the effort, ordered his troops back home after he learned they were patrolling neighborhoods far away from the area they were specifically assigned to monitor.
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