The Republican governors of West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio announced Saturday they will send National Guard troops to Washington, DC, in an escalation of President Donald Trump’s efforts to federally take over law enforcement in the city.

The city’s Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit calling for an emergency restraining order to block the move, accusing the Trump Administration of implementing a “hostile takeover” of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) that would lead to “imminent, irreparable harm”.

The moves come as federal agents and National Guard troops have begun to appear across the heavily Democratic city after President Trump's executive order earlier this week.

The National Guard presence in D.C. is set to increase in the coming days after the governors of some Republican states deployed troops to the capital.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump deployed 800 National Guard troops to the streets of Washington, DC, a rare flex of his presidential authority over the military while a court mulls the legality of his prior order sending troops to Los Angeles.

White House official says to expect "significantly higher National Guard presence” in Washington, D.C. Wednesday evening.

South Carolina and Ohio say they will send a combined 350 National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., supplementing a surge of troops from Republican-led states.

For a city whose population is 41% Black, D.C.’s homeless population is disproportionately Black, at 82.5%. Compare that to the city’s white population: 39.6%, with 6.6% homeless, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Sixty percent of all homeless people are men.