D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Thursday made a new request to the federal government to deploy the D.C. National Guard to assist with the hundreds of migrants being bused into the city from Texas and Arizona on a weekly basis.

Her request comes in the wake of a late-July plea for National Guard assistance which was rejected by the Department of Defense last week; federal officials said D.C. had access to federal funding to assist a local response to the migrants being dropped off at Union Station and raised concerns about Bowser’s open-ended request for help.

In a new letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Bowser specified that she wants National Guardsmen starting on Aug. 22 for up to 90 days to help run “respite sites” for migrants coming into D.C. before moving on to other locations, including a site at the D.C. Armory. “The Guard is uniquely resourced to provide emergency logistical support,” she wrote.

Bowser’s plea for assistance comes as she has faced criticism for her response to the estimated 6,600 migrants that Texas and Arizona have bused to D.C. so far. While she has called the situation “a growing humanitarian crisis,” local activists have argued that she could apply for larger grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assist aid group SAMU First Response, which already received $1 million in federal funds to assist migrants arriving in D.C. (Other local mutual aid groups have also been providing assistance, but say they are stretched thin.) Those same activists also said migrants could be scared off by a militarized response by the National Guard.

Yesterday D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine announced his office was making available $150,000 in grants for groups assisting the migrants, while D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has asked FEMA to allow nonprofits that get federal grants to be able to more flexibly use money to help migrants reach their final destinations after they arrive in D.C.

Bowser has said that immigration is a federal problem requiring a federal response, but White House officials were reportedly frustrated by her request for the National Guard, which they said played into right-wing arguments that there’s an immigration “crisis.” Writing in The Washington Post this week, columnist Colbert King — who is often critical of Bowser — said she was right to request the National Guard.

“The migration crisis is not a military event. The ongoing migrant surge is, however, a federal problem. And it requires a federal response. And shame on the White House officials criticizing Bowser’s federal aid request, suggesting it plays into the hands of Biden’s Republican critics,” he wrote. “What, pray tell, is the White House saying? ‘C’mon, Bowser, take one for the team?'”

Unlike state governors, Bowser cannot unilaterally call out the D.C. National Guard; she can merely request that the federal government do so. In the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection, where local guardsmen were not immediately deployed by federal officials, Bowser and other local leaders have been calling on Congress to change the law to give the city’s mayor the same authority as state governors.

In her letter to Austin, Bowser said that during her two terms in office she had requested National Guard deployments some 50 times: “to support our COVID-19 response, major events, and severe weather.” She added that she hoped this new request would similarly be granted.

“We need help from our federal partners,” she wrote, “as we seek to stabilize and manage our operating environment in this critical moment.”