Tennessee National Guard to join D.C. police order

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has authorized 160 members of the Tennessee National Guard to deploy to Washington, DC. (Photo by Tenn. Air Guard Master Sgt. Kendra Owenby)

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is dispatching National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., this week to join the president’s law enforcement takeover in the nation’s capital.

Acting on orders from President Donald Trump, the governor granted a request to help the District of Columbia National Guard with a “security mission,” spokesperson Elizabeth Johnson said.

Tennessee will join several other Republican-controlled states and send 160 Guard troops this week to D.C. “to assist as long as needed,” according to Johnson. They will work with local and federal law enforcement agencies on monument security, community safety patrols, federal facilities protection and traffic control, she said.

The Tennessee Guard deployment will be funded and regulated by the federal government.

At least four other Republican governors are sending nearly 1,000 National Guard troops to D.C. after Trump activated 800 D.C. soldiers.

Trump ordered the federal takeover of Washington, D.C., law enforcement despite opposition from local officials who said crime is down some 30%. 

Following a legal challenge by D.C. officials, the Trump administration backed off appointing a federal official to head the department and agreed to leave the city’s police chief in command. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, though, told local police to work with federal officers on immigration enforcement even if city laws are conflicting.

Lee also said he would deploy National Guard troops to provide logistical help with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Tennessee so they can spend more time on deportation.

Democratic state Rep. John Ray Clemmons of Nashville accused the governor of “uprooting” Guard personnel from their families to distract people from Trump’s “refusal to release the Epstein files,” a reference to the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation and whether Trump is mentioned in the documents. 

Clemmons pointed out violent crime in D.C. decreased by 26% this year while overall crime is down by 7%.

“If Trump was serious about addressing crime in D.C., all he and Congress have to do is better support and fund D.C. police, as they have the power to do, rather than militarize one of the most beautiful cities in America,” Clemmons said.