D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser released a letter this morning requesting the withdrawal of “all extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence from Washington, D.C.” The letter was dated Thursday, June 4, citing the end of the District’s curfew during the protests of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

“The deployment of federal law enforcement personnel and equipment are inflaming demonstrators and adding to the grievances of those who, by and large, are peacefully protesting for change and for reforms to the racist and broken systems that are killing Black Americans,” Bowser wrote.

The mayor also expressed concern about unidentified federal law enforcement, citing that they “pose a safety and national security risk.”

D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh echoed the mayor’s statement in a tweet, writing, “identifying insignia for law enforcement is mandatory in the District of Columbia.”

Soldiers and airmen in the National Guard called in from other states have been lodging at hotels and government facilities around D.C., a National Guard spokesperson told DCist, including at the Marriott Marquis hotel near the Washington Convention Center.

“It’s common practice for service members who are called upon to support a domestic operations response mission to be quartered in local accommodations at a government rate,” U.S. Army Master Sgt. W. Michael Houk previously told DCist via email. The government rate commercial lodging for D.C. is $256 dollars.

When National Guard troops are activated by their state governor and sent to another jurisdiction, the home state usually foots the bill, or arranges for reimbursement. When D.C. requested help for the COVID-19 response from the National Guard, it booked rooms at the Marriott Marquis for troops. But an administrative error caused the city to continue footing the bill when some of those Guardsmen were switched to protest duty.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee got wind of the issue and accused Bowser of “kicking the Utah National Guard out of all D.C. hotels,” claiming that “more than 1200 troops from 10 states are being evicted.” Though Bowser has expressed her clear frustration with the federal law enforcement in the city, the District has not evicted any troops from its hotels, nor does it have the authority to do so.

“Senator — until they are recalled home — which I have formally requested from the President, your troops are in D.C. hotels. However, D.C. residents cannot pay their hotel bills. The Army can clear that up with the hotel today, and we are willing to help,” the mayor said in a tweet to Lee this morning.

Bowser later clarified to DCist that this is merely a billing problem. “We’re not in a position to evict anyone from a private hotel. We’ve reached out to the senator from Utah to let him know that the department of the army I’m sure will work out any arrangements they need to work out with the hotel. This is about billing.”

In a series of tweets on Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump accused Bowser of “fighting with the National Guard, who saved her from great embarrassment … over the last number of nights. “If she doesn’t treat these men and women well, then we’ll bring in a different group of men and women!”

National Guard troops from several states including Utah, New Jersey, Indiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Maryland deployed to the District at the request of the Secretary of Defense this week. Without a governor, the mayor can only request the activation of the National Guard and the D.C. Guard. The official activation and top of the chain of command comes from the defense secretary of the Secretary of the Army.

In addition to the National Guard, about 1,600 active-duty soldiers from around the country were deployed at Trump’s request and positioned at military bases around the region awaiting orders. But the orders never came.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper broke with the president on the use of active-duty service members. “The option to use active duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations. We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act,” Esper told reporters Wednesday.

Stars and Stripes reported that around 700 active-duty troops from the 82nd Airborne Division have already been sent home to Fort Bragg in North Carolina. The soldiers were on an alert status at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, and Fort Belvoir in northern Virginia, the outlet said.