WASHINGTON \u2014 At a ribbon-cutting on an addition to an elementary school in the affluent Glover Park neighborhood last Monday, Mayor Muriel Bowser was all smiles. She watched students perform a scene from the musical \u201cOz,\u201d then spent several minutes talking about the benefits of investing in schools and getting students excited to get back in the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But minutes after taking photos with school leaders and local officials, she walked into the building\u2019s gymnasium, where she was swept into a tornado of her own, facing questions from reporters about a much tougher topic: the impacts of President Donald Trump\u2019s attempt to take over the city. All 14 questions Bowser fielded were about Trump\u2019s executive order, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been video of ICE arrests spreading across social media\u2026 What\u2019s your reaction when you\u2019re seeing these videos in the city?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCan you tell us how you feel about the additional National Guard troops coming from other states… Do you feel this has usurped your authority even more?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow are you reflecting on this moment? It seems like your potential concerns about this administration are starting to be realized?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite Bowser\u2019s attempt to project normalcy ahead of the first day for public schools Monday, the start of the school year will be anything but business as usual. Federal agents have set up checkpoints<\/a> at various intersections across the city. They\u2019ve conducted immigration enforcement actions, with food delivery drivers<\/a> slammed to the ground and arrested by masked agents from the Department of Homeland Security in broad daylight. National Guard soldiers in Army fatigues have taken up posts<\/a> outside of Nationals games and at metro stops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The White House says there are more than 2,000 agents, officers and soldiers involved in the operation, and more than 900 arrests have been made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement told NBC News last week that agents wouldn\u2019t be at D.C. schools on the first day, they might come onto campuses in the future<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As mayor, Bowser is the highest ranking official in D.C. government. But ever since Trump issued an executive order<\/a> declaring an emergency to restore \u201claw and order\u201d in the nation\u2019s capital, her limited power has become more evident, reflecting the city\u2019s lack of autonomy since it is not a state. She wants the agents from Homeland Security Investigations to stop covering their faces to avoid identification during enforcement operations. She doesn\u2019t think the National Guard presence is necessary, and wants them out. But all she can do is ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So she\u2019s focused on the things she can control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMonday is my favorite day of the year,\u201d Bowser told a room full of educators at Phelps Ace High School in Northeast Washington on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are more than 52,000 students in D.C.\u2019s 117 public schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even with the city on edge, Bowser told the educators to avoid the elephant in the room when the bell rings on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI want everyone to know whose job politics is in this room,\u201d Bowser said. \u201cWhose job is it? It\u2019s mine. It\u2019s mine. It\u2019s mine. I\u2019m the only one. It\u2019s not yours. Alright?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She told teachers to \u201ctrust that I\u2019m going to do the right thing for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that\u2019s not reassuring to parents, who are grappling with how to do the right thing for their kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alicia Swenson has four children in D.C. schools, and she and her husband were planning to let their sixth and seventh grade children commute to school on the Metro by themselves. Now, though, Swenson said she and her husband will to escort their kids to their school in Northwest D.C. because the National Guard is making their younger daughter uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last time she saw a large law enforcement presence in D.C. was during the 2020 racial justice protests, Swenson said. This time, though, is harder to explain to her children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBack then, I think we said, \u2018There\u2019s peaceful protesting, and that is people\u2019s right. It\u2019s a good thing to do to stand up when you see something wrong,\u2019\u201d Swenson said during a Friday interview. \u201cBut this? I have no idea what to say to her. It\u2019s very hard for us to explain what\u2019s going on right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At a back-to-school event in the West End neighborhood on Friday, parent Melissa Neil said that while the National Guard surge can be \u201cunderstandable,\u201d it was also \u201ca little concerning.\u201d Neil is a citizen but immigrated from the Dominican Republic, and she noted that even if someone is a citizen, \u201cyou still look as an immigrant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou never really know what are the standards,\u201d Neil said. \u201cEven if you have your documentation, they can still identify you as you are not. So it is concerning that you\u2019re with your kids, and they can pull you out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nearly every day, a video goes viral<\/a> of immigration<\/a> enforcement actions on the streets of Washington, after the Department of Justice directed Bowser to order the city\u2019s police department to assist in immigration enforcement operations and to comply with database inquiries and requests for information from any federal law enforcement entity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same back-to-school event, Louis Limes said he has \u201cmixed emotions\u201d about sending his daughters back to school amid the surge of National Guard and federal agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf they\u2019re out here for the safety of our children, cool, but from the last couple of days, we\u2019ve seen that they went over their boundaries as far as protecting and serving the streets, harassing, physically abusing citizens,\u201d Limes said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Itzetht Testa was shopping with her children in Columbia Heights on Thursday, and she said that although she served 25 years in the Air Force, she disagreed with the National Guard in the city\u2019s streets. She voted for Trump but disapproves of his first few months so much that she says she will never vote for a Republican again. Now, she said her seventh grade son felt threatened seeing the National Guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf they\u2019re using it for immigration purpose, I don\u2019t care for that,\u201d she said of the National Guard near schools. \u201cIt should not be used for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI will always vote independent from now on,\u201d Testa added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While DC residents have yelled, taunted, and protested against the federal agents and National Guard in their neighborhoods over the past 14 days, when students get to the front doors of their schools on Monday, Bowser said Wednesday at the Phelps pep rally that parents, neighbors, and friends will be there \u201cclapping\u201d them in, to show the city is cheering them on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re all going to be standing shoulder to shoulder with them,\u201d Bowser said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n