District of Columbia National Guard troops have orders to stay in the district through December, a Guard official said Wednesday.
President Donald Trump deployed the troops as part of a larger federal law enforcement plan in the city to crack down on crime. He also federalized the city’s police force, the Metropolitan Police Department.
The official said the mission’s extension is to ensure Guard members continue to receive benefits and pay for a mission that looks to last months. They added that all 950 Guard members in Washington may not serve until December, but the orders are a strong indication that their role is not winding down soon.
Guard members usually need to be on orders for more than 30 days to qualify for benefits, and multiple extensions to orders can sometimes cause interruptions.
Around 1,300 National Guard soldiers from West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Tennessee are also in Washington. It’s unclear when their orders will end.
A National Guard official said leaders are expected to put out guidance on leave and time off for deployed troops, a sign of the extended stay.
The Washington task force acknowledged Monday that it was “aware of concerns regarding pay and benefits for members of Joint Task Force-District of Columbia.”
“While exceptions exist, the majority of service members are mobilized on orders extending beyond 30 days, ensuring they qualify for full benefits,” the task force said in a statement.
The troops’ presence in Washington has been criticized as excessive and an overreach of power. Other criticisms are aimed at what the soldiers are actually doing.
With several other federal law enforcement agencies and the MPD policing the city, Guard troops have been spotted on their phones, cleaning up trash, or doing groundskeeping. The Joint Task Force said the Guard had “cleaned more than 3.2 miles of roadways, collected more than 677 bags of trash, and disposed of five truckloads of plant waste in coordination with the U.S. National Park Service.”
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Detractors have wondered whether using the soldiers in such a way is the best use of the armed forces.
Master Sgt. David Bowden told the Washington Post that the cleanup duties raise questions about how to maintain the units’ readiness. “It’s a question,” Bowden said, that “I and a lot of other higher enlisted are asking.”
