Members of the D.C. Council are asking both the governors of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Michigan to recall National Guard personnel deployed to the District, following the conclusion of the July Fourth and America 250 celebrations.
Reporter Rebecca Turco, of WTOP’s news partner 7News, posted a copy of the Michigan letter on X sent to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on July 9, thanking the Michigan National Guard for helping protect residents and visitors during the holiday events.
But the council said the mission they were sent to support has ended. Turco also shared a letter from the council addressed to U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Bryan Albert, expressing a similar sentiment.
The requests come after the Department of the Interior announced that its “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Mission” has been extended through Jan. 20, 2029, or until it is terminated by the president.
According to the council’s letter to Whitmer, members appreciated the governor’s public direction that Michigan troops were deployed specifically to support the July Fourth and America 250 celebrations and “were not to participate in the Trump administration’s broader ‘D.C. Safe and Beautiful’ mission or general law enforcement operations.”
“That distinction is important,” the letter states, adding that temporary assistance for a national celebration is fundamentally different from participating in what it described as an open-ended federal operation involving military patrols and law enforcement support in District neighborhoods.
The council said the July Fourth celebrations required significant public safety and logistical coordination across multiple jurisdictions and expressed gratitude to the National Guard members who left their homes and families to support the nation’s capital.
However, with those events now over, council members said they are asking Whitmer to recall all Michigan National Guard personnel “as soon as practicable” and decline any extension of their deployment.
The council also argued that D.C. residents pay federal taxes, serve in the military and host the nation’s democratic institutions but do not have full voting representation in Congress or full control over local affairs.
Separately, the Department of the Interior said it will continue supporting the Metropolitan Police Department and federal law enforcement partners until “law and order are fully restored” in Washington.
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