Three days later, the Guard was asking the mayor’s office about receiving “some heads up on the announcement” of Bowser’s request for troops to deal with the flood of illegal immigrants. The mayor’s office planned her request last year to the Biden White House for Guard troops about two months before sending a formal letter, although a senior Guard official said he wasn’t aware of the city government’s plan.Īs part of an exchange of text messages on May 24 and 25, 2022, Jim Slattery, the mayor’s correspondence officer, wrote to another city official: “Touching base on my revised edits to the White House letter re Texas migrants I sent last night.”

Heritage’s Oversight Project obtained emails and other documents related to Bowser and the National Guard through a request under the Freedom of Information Act. “Congress must immediately transfer command of the District of Columbia National Guard from the president of the United States and put it squarely under the command and control of the mayor of the District of Columbia,” Bowser added. 7, 2021, the day after the riot and less than two weeks before President Joe Biden took office. “We must get statehood on the president’s desk within the first 100 days of the 117th Congress,” Bowser told reporters during a press conference Jan.

But by spring and summer of 2022, the mayor’s reasoning shifted to dealing with the city’s illegal immigration crisis.Īt one point, she suggested to the Biden White House that such use of the Guard would be “much like the response to aid refugees from Afghanistan.” A bill to give the mayor that control passed the Democrat-run House during both years, but failed in the Senate.īowser previously had pushed for control of the Guard after the Capitol riot on Jan. National Guard as part of her home rule agenda in 20. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s multimedia news organization.)īowser, a Democrat, earlier sought control of the D.C. National Guard in the dark about the details of her plan, according to documents obtained by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project. However, Bowser and the city government left leaders of the D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser attempted to take control of the District of Columbia National Guard last year, with the stated goal of addressing a surge in illegal immigrants from Texas and Arizona, by pressuring the White House.

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