Trump orders to deploy the National Guard in Washington DC and “immediately” expels the homeless people from the streets

The city mayor, Democrat Muriel Bowser, described the president's announcement as “disturbing and unprecedented” and said she is based on the perception of crime that Trump had during her first government (2017-2021) and the Covid-19 Pandemic.

“We have worked quickly to promulgate laws to get the violent criminals from our streets,” he said. “We have observed a huge decrease in crime thanks to those efforts.”

He added that violent crimes are now at their lowest level in 30 years: “I can say that we will continue to manage our government in a way that makes them proud.”

According to Community Partnership, an organization that works to reduce the number of homeless people in Washington DC, he told the agency Reuters that in this city of 700,000 inhabitants there were about 3,782 homeless people any night.

Most were in public homes or emergency shelters, but it was considered that about 800 were “on the street.”

For the director of the beneficial organization SO Others Might Eat (Sub), Trump's intention that homeless people go to another place is not a policy that will improve the situation.

“The only thing you will achieve is to transfer the problem to other communities that may be less prepared than us to face it,” said the director of Sub, Ralph Boyd, who also said that the presence of housing people has decreased 20% since last year.

In his announcement on Monday, Trump said it was time to take “drastic measures” including:

In his press conference, the president also assured that he will eliminate the “marginal neighborhoods” of homeless people. “I know it is not politically correct … (but) we will eliminate the marginal neighborhoods where they live.”

He also noted that there are “young caravans”, referring to youth groups that have been seen in the streets of the capital. “They love to spit the police,” Trump said.

Washington DC is the headquarters of the federal government and also the only American city that does not belong to any of the 50 states of the country. This means that it lacks representation in Congress.

It was governed by presidential commissioners until 1973, the year in which former president Richard Nixon instituted the “Autonomy Law”, which allows residents to choose a municipal council and a mayor, but also reserves some powers for the President and Congress.

The Autonomy Law establishes that the president can take control of the city's police force if “there are special emergency conditions.”

However, if the president intends to assume control for more than 48 hours, he must notify Congress in writing. Even with that notification, you cannot maintain control for more than 30 days.

As the journalist of the BBC Nomia IQBAL stands out from Washington, it is ironic to listen to Trump talk about deploying National Guard troops in the US capital since it was something that was accused of not doing on January 6, 2021, after a violent mob of the president attacked the Capitol.

Analysis of Anthony Zurcher, correspondent for BBC News in North America

Donald Trump's decision to deploy the National Guard in the streets of Washington DC was insinuated in advance.

Its measure of taking control of the city's metropolitan police department is an unprecedented step, which deeply involves the White House in the daily management of one of the largest municipal police forces.

Section 740 of the law that gives Washington DC a limited self -government gives the President the authority to take control of the City Police Department in emergency circumstances.

The provision was included after the civil disturbances of the 1960s, but no president had used it so far. This authority expires in 30 days, unless Congress extends it.

Trump has identified a very real problem – the lack of housing and crime are a matter of concern in many US cities – but his way of approaching it is once again testing the limits of presidential power.

Already last month Trump had signed an order that facilitates the arrest of homeless and last week he ordered the federal security forces to take to the streets of Washington DC.

“The homeless have to move, immediately,” Trump wrote in his social media site Truth Social, Sunday. “We will give them places to stay, but far from the capital. Criminals, they don't have to move. We will put them in jail, where they belong.”

Together with photos of tents and garbage, he added: “There will be no 'Mr. Nice Guy' (or good guy, in Spanish). We want to recover our capital. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

On Friday, Trump ordered the entry of federal agents – among them from the United States Parks Police, the Drug Control Administration, the FBI and the US Sheriffs Service.- In Washington DC to stop what described as crime levels “totally out of control”.

A White House official told the NPR station that up to 450 federal agents were deployed on Saturday night.

Trump's actions occur after a 19 -year -old former employee of the Government Efficiency Department (Doge) was attacked in an alleged attempt to the robbery of car in Washington DC.

Trump relieved himself on that incident on social networks, publishing a photo of the bloody victim.

Mayor Bowser told MSNBC news channel on Sunday: “It is true that we had a terrible rebound in crime in 2023, but this is not 2023.

“We have spent the last two years reducing violent crime in this city, taking it to its lowest level in 30 years.”

And he criticized the Cabinet Vice Chief of the White House, Stephen Miller, for qualifying the US capital as “more violent than Baghdad.”

“Any comparison with a country devastated by war is hyperbolic and false,” Bowser said.

The homicide rate for Cápita Washington DC is still relatively high compared to other US cities, with a total of 98 murders of this type recorded so far this year. The tendency of homicides in the US capital has been upwards for a decade.

But January federal data indicate that Washington DC recorded last year its global figures of violent crimes – once incorporated car thefts, aggressions and robberies – lower in 30 years.

President Trump described Bowser as “a good person who has tried,” and added that, despite the mayor's efforts, crime continued to “get worse” and the city was increasingly “dirty and less attractive.”

As a district, and not as a state, Washington DC is supervised by the federal government, which has the power to cancel some local laws.

The president controls the federal lands and buildings of the city, although he would need Congress to assume federal district control.

In recent days, Trump threatened to take care of the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department, something Bowser argued that it was not possible.

“There are very specific things in our law that would allow the president to have more control over our police department,” Bowser said. “None of those conditions occur right now in our city.”

Trump has criticized several municipal administrations governed by Democrats during his two presidential mandates.

In recent months, he has struck the mayor of Los Angeles after ordering the sending of thousands of members of the National Guard to deal with the disturbances caused by the raids against undocumented immigrants.

This article was written and edited by our journalists with the help of an artificial intelligence tool for translation, such as Part of a pilot program.

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