DC officials say Trump crackdown is about immigration, power

The Hill

14 hours ago

Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and other officials in Washington, D.C., say the Trump administration's crime crackdown is really about exerting power and elevating immigration enforcement — not making D.C. safer.
While top Trump officials say the high-profile deployments have had the immediate effect of stifling crime in the District, local critics are raising questions about both the geographic placement of National Guard troops and federal officers — who have been most prominent in tourist hotspots and other wealthier parts of the city — and the focus of the criminal crackdown.
Of the 556 arrests tallied by the White House since it began increasing federal law enforcement presence on Aug. 7, nearly half of the arrests,233, have been classified by the administration as illegal aliens, a White House official said Tuesday.
'I think it makes the point that this is not about D.C. crime,' Bowser said earlier in the week, adding that the administration should be transparent about its intent.
'Nobody is against focusing on driving down any level of violence,' Bowser said. 'And so if this is really about immigration enforcement, the administration should make that plain.'
The list of those arrested includes immigrants with alleged criminal histories of assault, kidnapping, burglary and larceny, the White House official said. But it also includes delivery drivers arrested as they tried to pick up food from commercial venues, sparking a backlash from human rights advocates and some D.C. residents.
Fueling the criticisms, the highest profile arrest to date was that of a Justice Department employee accused of throwing a sandwich at an agent of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in a section of the city best known for its vibrant nightlife.
Other high-profile or viral encounters have largely centered on immigration.
Video captured at least five masked agents who refused to answer questions about what agency they were with as they used a stun gun on a delivery driver before placing the man in an unmarked vehicle. When an onlooker said the officers were ruining the country, one federal agent responded 'liberals already ruined it.'
In another case, a man captured video of his delivery driver as he was detained just minutes away, arrested by officers after the Arabic speaker was apparently unable to answer questions posed by officers.
The apparent focus on immigration has prompted protests around the city. In one high-profile example, video from Tuesday shows a crowd in the Columbia Heights neighborhood marching behind a group of ICE agents and chanting 'ICE go home' until the agents reach their vehicles and leave the area.
The following day, the administration pushed back against the demonstrations, dispatching Vice President Vance, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Union Station, the transportation hub where National Guard troops have been stationed for days.
Vance touted the National Guard presence as 'a great example of what's possible when you actually have the political willpower to bring law and order and common decency back to the public spaces of the United States of America,' while Miller railed against 'stupid white hippies' protesting the crackdown.
Some Democrats say the president has launched the tough-on-crime effort merely to deflect attention away from the ongoing saga surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender who had past ties to Trump and his elite social circle in South Florida.
'Trump is using DC as a stage and DC residents as props in a political play to distract from his Epstein problem,' Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) posted on X. 'This is unacceptable.'
Charles Allen, a D.C. councilmember, cast the takeover as a way to assert control and distract from problems within the Trump presidency.
'Authoritarianism, power, and control — what this has all been about — made plain,' he wrote on X last week.
'It might make sense if he's trying to create compelling TV and distract folks from the real scandals he's facing, but it doesn't make our city safer & it's a dangerous abuse of power and authority,' he added later.
Announcing his D.C.-crime crackdown earlier in the month, Trump said it was necessary to combat levels of crime in Washington he portrayed as dystopian. The surge in federal forces would 'rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor, and worse,' he said.
But during that announcement, Trump repeatedly turned to the topic of immigration.
'This city will no longer be a sanctuary for illegal alien criminals,' he said.
'We will have full, seamless, integrated cooperation at all levels of law enforcement, and we'll deploy officers across the district with an overwhelming presence.'
Initially, the administration deployed 800 unarmed National Guard troops, on top of hundreds of other officers across a host of agencies like the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Since then, the numbers have grown dramatically, with six GOP-led states sending their National Guard forces to D.C. at the request of the administration, bringing the total to nearly 2,000 various law enforcement officers patrolling D.C. Additionally, the Guard members will begin carrying weapons, according to numerous reports.
During a press briefing on Wednesday, Bowser made clear that she doesn't support the surge of military troops.
'I don't think the National Guard should be used for law enforcement,' she said. 'Calling women from their homes and their jobs and their families — they have to be used on mission-specific items that benefit the nation. I don't think you have an armed militia in the nation's capital.'
The D.C. Police Union, which says it represents 3,000 of the city's law enforcement officers, has hailed the arrival of the federal reinforcements as a necessary step in combating violent crime in the nation's capital. The union posted numbers on Monday indicating that crime in D.C. plummeted in the first week after Trump announced the law enforcement surge, versus the week prior. Violent crimes, the group said, were down 22 percent over that span, while all crimes were down 8 percent.
Carjackings saw the greatest change, down 83 percent.
'At the direction of @POTUS, our nation's capital is a SAFER place — and we are just getting started,' U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted Tuesday on X.
Bondi said the surge has led to the seizure of 76 guns, including nine on Monday night alone.
On Wednesday, Bondi promoted a new campaign from the U.S. Marshals Office offering a $500 reward for information leading to an arrest during the federal surge.
'Together, we will make DC safe again!' she wrote.
Violent crime in D.C., which saw a large spike during the COVID pandemic, has since plummeted even long before Trump's policing campaign, however, raising questions about the true effectiveness of the federal surge. Offenses related to carjackings, for example, fell from 319 through the first eight months of 2024 to 190 over the same span this year, according to D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department.
Given those trends, Trump's critics see a more menacing campaign, warning that the militarization of Washington's streets brings with it an authoritarian air that's quickly damaged certain businesses. That includes restaurants, which saw a plunge in reservations in the days after the administration's law enforcement takeover.
'The whole region understands that oppression of people in Washington hurts everybody who lives in our region,' Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told MSNBC on Tuesday. 'We don't want to see people's rights being trampled there.'
The crackdown comes as D.C. Police officers have been under pressure to do more to assist federal officers with immigration enforcement.
D.C. police have traditionally sought to bar its officers from taking actions based solely on immigration status if someone doesn't otherwise have a criminal warrant out for their arrest.
But in a move that was later shifted under court scrutiny, Bondi sought to appoint a new D.C. police commissioner while also seeking to unwind D.C. laws limiting police involvement in immigration enforcement.
Immigration advocates in D.C. say now any brush with law enforcement could be disastrous for migrants.
'This disturbing policy strips away the rights and safety of our communities. Even the most common police interactions—such as a traffic violation or reporting a crime—can have life-altering consequences for immigrants, including detention and deportation,' Amica Center for Immigrant Rights said in a statement before Bondi's order was tamed by the courts.
'This policy adds to the atmosphere of fear and distrust, perpetuates racial profiling, and criminalizes innocent people.'