U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures (D-Mobile) is criticizing the idea of sending the National Guard into Alabama cities to fight crime.

President Trump has already sent federal National Guard forces to Washington, D.C., to address crime there, and has also announced a plan to send them to Memphis, Tennessee, along with other federal law enforcement officials.

“At the end of the day, the military is not the answer,” he said in a sit-down interview with Nexstar’s D.C. correspondent. “I’d stand up against the military coming into Mobile, and I know people on both sides of the political aisle, Republicans and Democrats, would stand up against that.”

While there are no current plans to send any troops into Alabama to fight crime, Gov. Kay Ivey said Alabama stands ready if called upon.

Figures called using the National Guard in this manner “reckless.”

“I think it’s generally a reckless decision to send the United States military,” he argued, “our armed service men and women domestically into cities to perform traditional state and local law enforcement responses.”

The congressman believes there is a better approach to combating crime in big cities.

“I think the answer is to make sure that we are paying our law enforcement officers and to make sure that we are training our law enforcement officers as well to make sure that we are taking care of them in terms of the benefits that they have and the retirement they have,” he said. “That’s what we need to be focused on. If we do those things, we will be able to recruit more law enforcement officers, but we can’t say that we are serious about supporting law enforcement while at the same time cutting funding that could go to law enforcement, to promote the hiring of law enforcement officers.”

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee