Dozens Arrested In Washington As White House Ratchets Up Police Presence

NDTV

2 days ago

Washington:
Following President Donald Trump's unprecedented announcement that his administration would take over the Washington police department and dispatch the National Guard for at least a month, the White House announced there would be a round-the-clock presence of local and federal law enforcement officers.
The White House said there were 45 arrests in the city on Wednesday night, including 29 arrests of people living in the country illegally, and that over 1,650 people are now participating in the law enforcement operation. While the National Guard will be able to temporarily detain people while assisting law enforcement, its troops will not have the power of arrest, according to the Pentagon.
The federalisation push also includes clearing out encampments of homeless people and relocating them far from the city, although details of the plan are unclear.
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When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law 90 years ago, he said it would provide economic stability to older people while giving the US "an economic structure of vastly greater soundness."
Today, the program provides benefits to almost 69 million Americans each month. It's a major source of income for people older than 65 and is popular across the country and political lines.
But just as it has for decades, Social Security faces a looming shortfall in money to pay full benefits.
And since Trump took office, it has faced more tumult. Agency staffing has been slashed. Unions and advocacy groups concerned about sharing sensitive information have sued. Administration officials, including the president, have falsely claimed that millions of dead people were receiving benefits. Former adviser Elon Musk called it a potential "Ponzi scheme."
In her ruling earlier Thursday, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland struck down administration guidance aimed at eliminating diversity programs at schools and colleges. She said the Education Department violated the law when it threatened to cut federal funding from educational institutions that continued with such initiatives.
The department reacted later in a statement, saying it was disappointed by the decision but "judicial action enjoining or setting aside this guidance has not stopped our ability to enforce Title VI protections for students at an unprecedented level."
The case centres on two department memos ordering schools and universities to end all "race-based decision-making" or face penalties up to a total loss of federal funding. It's part of a campaign to end practices that the Trump administration frames as discrimination against white and Asian American students.
They typically investigate drug lords, weapons traffickers or cyber criminals. But this week they fanned out across the capital as part of Trump's efforts to clamp down on crime.
The sometimes-masked federal agents joined the National Guard as well as the United States Park Police, whose responsibilities include protecting monuments and managing crowds during demonstrations.
Soldiers in fatigues kept watch near Union Station, while Drug Enforcement Administration agents patrolled the National Mall. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives officers helped question a couple in northwest Washington who were parked illegally and eating McDonald's takeout.
Trump said he was taking over Washington's police in hopes of reducing crime, even as city officials stressed that crime is already falling. The city's status as a federal district allows the president to take control, though he is limited to 30 days unless he gets Congressional approval.
As National Guard troops deploy across her city as part of the president's efforts to clamp down on crime, Muriel Bowser is responding with relative restraint.
She has called the takeover of the city's police department and the activation of 800 members of the Guard " unsettling and unprecedented " and gone as far as to cast such efforts as part of an "authoritarian push."
But Bowser has so far avoided the kind of biting rhetoric and personal attacks typical of other high-profile Democratic leaders. Instead, she is cooperating with administration efforts, including having city workers clear homeless encampments and work more closely with immigration agents, as Trump demanded.
"While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can't say that, given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we're totally surprised," Bowser said. She even suggested the surge in resources might benefit the city.
Orthodoxy is the majority religion in both Russia and Ukraine, although it has also been a source of controversy. Russian church leadership has strongly supported the invasion of Ukraine, and the war has aggravated a schism among Ukraine's Orthodox.
"With the leaders coming to Alaska, what is the one thing that the church can offer? That is prayers for peace," said Archbishop Alexei of the Diocese of Sitka and Alaska in the Orthodox Church of America.
The first prayers on Tuesday sought the help of St. Olga of Kwethluk, an Alaska Native woman canonised in June as the first Orthodox woman saint in North America.
Wednesday's services sought the intercession of St. Herman, a monk and missionary "known for standing up against Russian authorities when they were doing what was wrong to the people," Alexei said.
And Thursday prayers focused on a historic icon of the Mother of God at the cathedral in Sitka.
The court ruled that six grants must be restored to organisations that lost their funding after several Trump administration Executive Orders and at the direction of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The ruling "sets a strong precedent that could allow hundreds of other grants to be challenged and reinstated," environmental nonprofit Earthjustice said in a statement.
Plaintiffs included groups that support causes like tree planting, climate-friendly farming practices and growing food in underserved communities.
The total value of the terminated grants was over $34 million, the attorneys said.
"In the wake of this ruling, we hope the USDA stops arbitrarily cancelling grants and contracts without an understanding of the work being done," said Erin McKee, community food systems program director at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, one of the plaintiffs.
The USDA referred a request for comment to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond.
Muriel Bowser said on the social platform X that, as a "mom and mayor, raising a delightful 7-year-old on my own," she needed to leave amid the ongoing federal law enforcement activity to bring her daughter home from camp.
The mayor added that she also "cancelled a scheduled family trip" this week "to lead our city's crisis management efforts."
Bowser said she has been "in constant consultation with our partners throughout a short swing out of the District," which began Wednesday, "after work."
Bowser's office had said she had a "family commitment" in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and would return Friday afternoon.
After it was reported that Bowser was not in the city on Thursday, critics accused her of going on vacation or otherwise fleeing during the federal law enforcement intervention.
The judge ordered the nation's health department to stop giving deportation officials access to the personal information - including home addresses - of all 79 million Medicaid enrollees.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services first handed over the data in June. After an AP report identified the new policy, 20 states sued to stop it.
The order by Judge Vince Chhabria in California temporarily halts the health department from sharing personal data of enrollees in those 20 states, which include California, Arizona, Washington and New York.
"Using CMS data for immigration enforcement threatens to significantly disrupt the operation of Medicaid - a program that Congress has deemed critical for the provision of health coverage to the nation's most vulnerable residents," Chhabria wrote in his decision, issued Tuesday.
An HHS spokesperson declined to directly answer whether the agency would stop sharing the data. HHS has maintained that its agreement with DHS is legal.
The man, who has been charged with a felony, has been dismissed from his job at the Department of Justice, the attorney general said in a social media post.
A video of Sean Charles Dunn berating a group of federal agents late Sunday went viral online. Dunn was arrested on an assault charge after he threw a "sub-style" sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent, a court filing said.
Dunn, 37, of Washington, was an international affairs specialist in the DOJ's criminal division, according to a department official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter.
"You will NOT work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement," Bondi said.
An attorney who represented Dunn at his initial appearance in federal court declined to comment.
-Michael Kunzelman and Alanna Durkin Richer
The Russian president made the remarks Thursday, more than three years after Moscow launched its invasion, as the two leaders prepared for their Friday Russia summit.
Following a meeting with top officials, Putin said in a short video released by the Kremlin that the Trump administration was making "quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities" and to "reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved."
Putin also suggested that "long-term conditions of peace between our countries, and in Europe, and in the world as a whole," could be reached under an agreement with the U.S. on nuclear arms control.
Trump said there was a 25% chance the summit would fail, but he also floated the idea that, if the meeting succeeds, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could come to Alaska for a subsequent, three-way meeting.
The portraits of Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush had been on display in the foyer, visible to tourists and guests alike.
But Trump recently had Obama moved to the top of the staircase to his private living quarters, an area off-limits to visitors. The Bushes were also relocated to the staircase. The change was first reported by CNN.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle attributed the rearrangement to Trump's "incredible eye for detail and design" and said he is "carrying out a historic renovation of the People's House for Americans to enjoy for generations to come."
"And just like every other President before him, he and the First Family may request changes to the Executive Residence," Ingle said.
Trump and Obama have had a fraught relationship. Trump also has not hidden his dislike for the Bush family.
Portraits of the most recent presidents traditionally get a place of prominence in the foyer.
In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland said the Education Department violated the law when it threatened to cut federal funding from educational institutions that continue with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The ruling followed a motion for summary judgment from the American Federation of Teachers and the American Sociological Association, which challenged the government's actions in a February lawsuit.
The case centres on two Education Department memos ordering schools and universities to end all "race-based decision-making" or face penalties up to a total loss of federal funding. It's part of a campaign to end practices the Trump administration frames as discrimination against white and Asian American students.
Texas Democrats on Thursday moved closer to ending a nearly two-week walkout that has blocked the GOP's redrawing of U.S. House maps before the 2026 election and put them under escalating threats by Republicans back home.
The Democrats announced they will return so long as Texas Republicans end a special session and California releases its own redrawn map proposal, both of which were expected to happen Friday.
Democrats did not say what day they might return.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott still intends to push through new maps that would give the GOP five more winnable seats before next year's midterm elections.
A network of clinics that provides health care in Maine asked a judge Thursday to restore its Medicaid funding while it fights a Trump administration effort to keep federal money from going to abortion providers.
President Donald Trump's policy and tax bill, known as the " big beautiful bill," blocked Medicaid money from flowing to Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider. The parameters in the bill also stopped funding from reaching Maine Family Planning, a much smaller provider that offers health care services in one of the poorest and most rural states in the Northeast.
A federal judge ruled last month that Planned Parenthood clinics around the country must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding as the provider wrangles with the Trump administration over efforts to defund it. That legal fight continues.
Trump on Thursday denied that the federal law enforcement officials he sent into Washington's streets to fight crime have been pulled away from priority assignments.
Asked if he was concerned about that, Trump said he's using a "very small force" of soldiers and that city police are now allowed to do their job under his takeover of the department.
"And no, they're not being pulled off for anything," Trump said.
Ahead of a summit between the American and Russian leaders, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been allowed to "play" American President Donald Trump for months.
"We've seen again red line after red line that he's drawn and then allowed Vladimir Putin to cross while the conflict gets worse or people are killed," Shaheen told reporters. "The president, frankly, should be embarrassed because Vladimir Putin is playing him and has been playing him for months. And this summit, unfortunately, seems like it's just one more effort to do that."
Still, Shaheen said she was hopeful that the meeting could yield a positive result for Ukraine and urged the Republican president to show strength, including by moving ahead with legislation to impose further sanctions on Russia.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, led by prominent vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will revive a childhood vaccine panel to "improve the safety, quality and oversight of vaccines."
The panel was disbanded in 1998.
National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez, and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary will all sit on the panel, but it is unclear who else will serve on it.
The panel will give a formal report to Congress on vaccines within two years, according to an HHS announcement on Thursday.