Retired military and active-duty Ohio families spoke out against Gov. Mike DeWine recently deploying Ohio National Guard troops to Washington D.C. at the request of President Donald Trump.
Trump said earlier this month he would send National Guard troops to Washington D.C. to crackdown on crime and Ohio is one of six states that has so far sent troops to Washington D.C.
Violent crime in Washington D.C. is at a thirty year low and Toledo, Dayton, and Cleveland all had a higher crime rate than Washington D.C. in 2024.
“This is not a national emergency,” said VALOR Media Network President Kenneth Harbaugh. “The impact on the morale of these soldiers on the ground is palpable when they are pulled away from their families, when they have to miss birthdays and graduations and the beginning of school and things like that to go guard a Shake Shack.”
Trump has also talked about possibly sending troops to other cities including Chicago, New York, and Baltimore.
“The current deployments … and the ones that are being contemplated in other places throughout the country in the near future are unnecessary and disruptive to the lives of all these citizen soldiers,” said Christopher Dziubek, retired U.S. Army Brigadier General.
Secretary of the Army Daniel P. Driscoll asked DeWine on Aug. 15 to send 150 members from the Ohio National Guard to Washington D.C. and members of the Ohio National Guard are currently there on a 30-day deployment.
Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Tennessee have also sent troops — all states with Republican governors.
“These deployments to D.C. are not an emergency and are an overstep in the use of our military,” said Ohio Army National Guard veteran Jermaine Collins. “It’s downright disrespectful to our citizen soldiers to pull them away from their families and their communities to police the unhoused population in D.C. and assist ICE in mass deportations.”
Part of Trump’s crackdown on crime comes from a recent executive order that forces those experiencing homelessness off the streets.
“Our loved ones are being deployed, not for defense, not for disaster relief, not for emergencies, but for missions that are vague, polarizing, and even cosmetic,” said Brandi Jones, an Ohio military spouse and co-executive director of Secure Families Initiative. “Beautification of cities is not the job of the military.”
The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia has not asked for National Guard troops to be deployed, and Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has spoken out against the deployment.
“Folks did not sign up for the National Guard to become political pawns,” Collins said. “If our citizen soldiers wanted to become Metro P.D. or ICE agents, they would have signed up for that instead of the National Guard. … National Guard troops shouldn’t be used as political pawns.”
Trump does have the authority to request National Guard troops to Washington D.C.
“But the trigger for using those legal authorities is in an emergency situation … where normal local authorities are hamstrung by lack of resources, or they’re utterly overrun by violent rioters, protesters, insurrectionists, (or) rebels,” said Dan Maurer, U.S. Army veteran and Ohio Northern University College of Law associate professor.
Sixty cities have a higher violent crime rate than Washington D.C., he said.
“The governor should have asked questions … like, ‘Well, what exactly is the emergency we’re facing? … What are the facts on the ground that justify the extraordinary use of another state’s National Guard on the streets of American cities to do law enforcement?” Maurer said.
The Ohio National Guard is one of the largest in the country with around 17,000 soldiers and airmen, according to the 122nd Army National Guard Band.
Advocates are calling on DeWine to bring the deployed National Guards troops home.
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