ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First/AP) - Georgia is sending more than 300 National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., to help with President Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement intervention in the nation’s capital, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday.

The Georgia National Guard members will provide support “to aid in restoring public safety” in and around D.C., following Trump’s executive order last month declaring a crime emergency in the district, Kemp said.

At the request of the Trump administration, roughly 300 Georgia Guard soldiers will deploy in mid-September to relieve soldiers from elsewhere who deployed earlier.

Kemp said Georgia’s soldiers may be armed and will support law enforcement.

Sixteen Guard support staff members were deployed earlier this week to Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in D.C., “where they will work with other military personnel providing support for the broader mission,” according to Kemp’s office. Those Guard members won’t be involved in policing.

The Georgia Guard members will join the hundreds of other Guard troops from Republican-led states already deployed to D.C.

Trump initially called up 800 members of the D.C. National Guard to assist federal law enforcement in his bid to crack down on crime, homelessness and illegal immigration. Since then, seven other Republican-led states have sent troops — Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia.

“Georgia is proud to stand with the Trump administration in its mission to ensure the security and beauty of our nation’s capital,” Kemp said in a statement. “We share a commitment to upholding public safety and are grateful to these brave guardsmen and women, for the families that support them, and for their dedication to service above self. As they have demonstrated again and again, our Georgia Guard is well equipped to fulfill both this mission and its obligations to the people of our state.”

Last month, Kemp announced he was mobilizing 75 Guard troops to help with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Georgia.

Kemp’s office said those troops are not armed, “nor are they in the field,” but were instead deployed to “perform only administrative and logistical tasks at various ICE facilities in Georgia.”

Georgia is one of 11 states where the Guard will be helping ICE.

Kemp, the current chair of the Republican Governors Association, has for years been sending Georgia Guard members to the Mexican border in Texas to support border enforcement there.

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Some Democratic state lawmakers attacked the use of the National Guard as illegal and unconstitutional in a Friday news conference at the Georgia State Capitol.

“The threat before us is not just from foreign shores, but from within — a reckless deployment of the National Guard against fellow American citizens,” said state Rep. Eric Bell, a Jonesboro Democrat and former U.S. Navy officer. “Make no mistake, this is not about public safety. It’s the erosion of American freedom and sovereignty.”

Protesters in Atlanta recently decried the D.C. crackdown, which one organizer called Trump’s “illegal takeover of the D.C. police,” and expressed their concern that a similar federal intervention could happen in Georgia.

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Trump has said he plans to send the National Guard into Chicago and Baltimore, despite opposition in the Democrat-led cities.

On Thursday, District of Columbia officials asked a federal court to intervene in Trump’s use of the National Guard in the city. D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a lawsuit that the deployment is an illegal use of the military for domestic law enforcement.

In response, the White House said deploying the National Guard to protect federal assets and assist law enforcement is within Trump’s authority as president.

A federal judge in California ruled on Tuesday that Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles after protests over immigration raids in June was illegal. It does not directly apply to Washington, where the president has more control over the Guard than in states.

Meanwhile, members of the D.C. National Guard have had their orders extended through December, a Guard official said. The extension is a strong indication that their role will not wind down soon.

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Copyright 2025 WANF. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.