Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, R-Ark., spoke to members of the 142nd Field Artillery Brigade and their families Monday morning, December 1, 2025, during a sendoff ceremony at their training facilities at Fort Chaffee in Barling, Ark. Bad weather forced a one day delay in the departure for the 100 guard members. They instead flew off Tuesday morning to their deployment in Washington D.C., which officially begins Thursday.
As Little Rock Public Radio reports, Governor Sanders highlighted the bravery of the guard members, noting their deployment to the nation’s capital, one week after the attack on two West Virginia National Guard soldiers, one of whom died, while critically wounding the other.
Sanders said the attack was a reminder that we quote, ‘live in a fallen world full of sin.’ “Last week’s attack made clear that this is about more than just about law and order. We live in a world where men want to tear down everything that is good, whether it is out of hatred towards our president, hatred towards our country, or just hatred in their hearts. And the Arkansas National Guard is being called on to confront that evil head on and confront it with good.”
To more than a few observers, the least of which are statisticians who have analyzed the crime statistics in the nation's capital city, it's still difficult, even now, to square the facts on the ground with the high profile deployments of so many National Guard troops from various parts of the country.
![Violent crime dropped 35% from 2023 to 2024 according to Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department records; homicides alone dropped just under 32%, while all property crimes also dropped 10.6% in the same time period. Yet, on August 11, 2025, President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard in Washington D.C., invoking the District of Columbia's Home Rule Act. This enables the president to take control of the police department. Trump said he did so to "rescue [the] nation's capital from crime."](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/5af60a4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/584x518+0+0/resize/840x746!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F72%2Ff2%2Fe1b31a614dc394009fe33052367f%2Fark-national-guard-story-gfx-on-dc-12-03-25.png)
Yet, on August 11, 2025, President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard in Washington D.C. without the mayor's conset, invoking the District of Columbia's Home Rule Act. This enabled the president to take control of the police department. Trump said he did so to "rescue [the] nation's capital from crime."
That's according to court testimony and a federal judge's ruling November 20, 2025, that called Trump's troop deployment in D.C. "unlawful," as reported by NPR.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb's 61 page ruling, in essence, says the president is overstating the President's Article II authority, which would erase Congress' role in governing the District and its National Guard," wrote Cobb.
Judge Cobb's ruling also stated the Pentagon lacked the authority to sent 1,000 out-of-state National Guard troops into the district to assist with law enforcement efforts. The judge delayed the impact of the ruling for 21 days, until December 11, 2025, to give the government time to appeal.
What impact this may or may not have on the Arkansas National Guard Deployment to Washington D.C. is unknown at this time. Their deployment is expected to continue through the end of February. last for several months. They will conduct security presence patrols and provide support to local law enforcement, and relieve at least some of the guard members currently on patrols in Washington.
After the shooting of the two West Virginia Guard Members, Pres. Trump ordered an additional 500 more National Guard troops to Washington D.C., to go along with the 2,100 troops in D.C.
