Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memo late last week authorizing National Guard troops deployed in Washington, D.C., to carry weapons if their mission requires it. The memo, according to one official, was addressed to the chief of the National Guard Bureau and the Secretary of the Army.

US National Guard members deployed to Washington, DC, started carrying their sidearms on Sunday, a spokesperson for the Joint Task Force carrying out the mission told CNN.

National Guard troops on duty in President Trump’s D.C. crackdown began carrying weapons Sunday evening, according to a spokesman for the National Guard task force. Several members of the Guard from South Carolina were seen late Sunday outside Washington’s Union Station with firearms holstered to their hips.