by Natalia Mittelstadt
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has extended the deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., through February.
The deployment of more than 2,000 National Guardsmen was set to expire at the end of November, a Pentagon official told The Hill news outlet on Thursday.
An Army official told the media outlet the Guardsmen “are patrolling communities, deterring crime, and providing vital assistance to the citizens and visitors of the District of Columbia.”
The Guard has been deployed in D.C. since August, when President Trump sent about 800 members to the nation’s capital and put the city’s police department under federal control. Trump declared a public emergency over D.C.’s violent crime crisis and ordered Hegseth to mobilize the guard.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Drug Enforcement Administration, and FBI agents were also sent by Trump to the city to crack down on crime and illegal immigration.
National Guardsmen from Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia are also in D.C. There are 2,389 National Guardsmen in the city, 960 from D.C. and 1,427 from the seven states, according to the Joint Task Force – D.C.
Crime rates in Washington, D.C., have decreased since the National Guard was deployed. CBS News conducted an analysis showing that the violent crime rate dropped by 49 percent between August 7 and August 25 compared to the same period in 2024.
The National Guard has been deployed to Illinois, Oregon, California, and Tennessee this year. Reuters reported that the National Guard is planning to train guardsmen of each state to be ready for “civil disturbance missions.”
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Natalia Mittelstadt is a reporter for Just the News. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
Photo “National Guard Members” by The National Guard.
