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The Hill
19 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Pence: ‘I fully support' Trump's deployment of National Guard to DC
Former Vice President Pence said on Sunday he 'fully' supports President Trump's approach to combating crime in Washington, D.C., through his recent crackdown on the nation's capital. 'I welcome his decision to deploy the National Guard and essentially federalize the D.C. Police Department. I know that it's all now working in a very cooperative way,' Pence said in an interview on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'I think it's important what the president is doing. I fully support it. And I think the American people welcome the president taking decisive action to ensure the streets of our nation's capital are safe and also continues to provide resources across the country to make all of our cities and towns and communities safe,' Pence added. The National Guard started ramping up its presence in Washington on Thursday, deploying troops to the National Mall and Metro stations after the president announced the move earlier in the week in what he portrayed as a crackdown on crime in the nation's capital. The White House said more than 1,600 personnel were involved in operations across the city on Wednesday, making 45 arrests, mostly targeting immigrants who lacked permanent legal status. While the Guard had a relatively small footprint in the city earlier this week, by Thursday, all of the roughly 800 Army and Air National Guard troops Trump ordered to the streets had mobilized for duty, the Pentagon confirmed. On Saturday, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) announced the deployment of 200 National Guard troops to Washington, just hours after West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R) announced between 300 and 400 National Guard troops would be traveling to the nation's capital.
Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
DC Sues Trump Administration Over Takeover of City
EDITORS NOTE: EDS: MOVES 1st reference to Bondi to 2nd graf from graf "Mayor Muriel Bowser ..."; ADDS graf "The suit asks ..."; EXPANDS graf "The city's lawsuit ...".); (ART ADV: With photo.); (With: DC-FEDS-POLICING The District of Columbia government filed a lawsuit Friday challenging the Trump administration's "brazen usurpation" of the city's authority by trying to take control the D.C. Police Department, in a marked escalation of tensions between local and federal authorities in the nation's capital. The suit argues that both President Donald Trump's executive order Monday federalizing the Police Department and a follow-up order by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi "far exceed" the president's authority under the Home Rule Act of 1973, which granted D.C. its limited degree of self-government. Such an attempt to "upend the command structure of the Police Department" risks "endangering the safety of the public and law enforcement officers alike," the suit says, using the Trump administration's argument for public safety against it. The suit asks the court for an injunction against Bondi's order and a declaration that the administration's actions are unconstitutional and a violation of the Home Rule Act. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court by the D.C. attorney general, Brian Schwalb, comes after the Trump administration moved Thursday to expand its control of the city's Police Department by installing an "emergency commissioner" and revoking policies that limited officers' cooperation with immigration enforcement. Schwalb, a Democrat who was elected in 2022, has been outspoken from the outset in criticizing the federal takeover of D.C. police and the deployment of the National Guard, calling the moves "unnecessary and unlawful." In a statement Friday morning, Schwalb said the administration was "abusing its limited, temporary authority under the Home Rule Act, infringing on the district's right to self-governance and putting the safety of D.C. residents and visitors at risk." "This is the gravest threat to Home Rule that the district has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it," he said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mayor Muriel Bowser had been, for the most part, diplomatic in her comments this week. But that tone changed late Thursday after Bondi issued an order rescinding the city's policing policies governing immigration enforcement. That order also declared that Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, was now the "emergency police commissioner," with "all the powers and duties" invested in the city's police chief, Pamela A. Smith. Schwalb issued a legal opinion saying Bondi's order was "unlawful," and that the mayor was "not legally obligated to follow it." Bowser posted the letter on social media, saying the city had followed the law but that "there is no statute that conveys the district's personnel authority to a federal official." The lawsuit, which lists Trump, Bondi and Cole as defendants, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice and the DEA, expands upon that opinion. Trump's executive order was based on a section of the Home Rule Act that explicitly gives presidents temporary authority to "direct the mayor to provide him" such services of deemed "necessary and appropriate" to address "special conditions of an emergency nature." That order declared a "crime emergency" in the city, and in announcing the order Trump said he was "placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police under direct federal control." While Bowser later that day acknowledged that the president had the authority to order the services of the Metropolitan Police, she said Smith was still in command. But on Thursday, Bondi issued her order installing Cole in command of the police. The city's lawsuit argues that this order was a violation of the Home Rule Act, which does not grant presidents "operational control" over the police. It also says the law limits presidents to using the police for "federal purposes," not the managing enforcement of local laws. The suit challenged that the emergency the president cited to justify his order was overly broad, saying it refers to crime in general, "and declining crime at that." The president's executive order Monday said crime in D.C. had "a dire impact on the federal government's ability to operate efficiently to address the nation's broader interests." The suit is the latest attempt by local jurisdictions to push back legally at the administration's broad assertion of federal power. The state of California sued the Trump administration after the president deployed thousands of National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles this summer, after protests broke out against aggressive immigration enforcement. A federal judge ruled that the deployment was unconstitutional, but an appeals court disagreed, arguing that the president had acted within his authority. While most of the soldiers have returned home, that litigation is ongoing. Washington is in a different position, given the many limitations on its autonomy under federal law. The section of the Home Rule Act giving the president some authority over local police says this authority terminates after the end of the declared emergency, an act of Congress or a period of 30 days, whichever comes first. Trump has said he will seek from Congress "long term extensions" of his control over the D.C. police. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump signs order for increased police, more concealed carry in Washington
By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday aimed at satisfying his long-held demand for increased law enforcement in Washington, D.C. and expediting applications by "law-abiding citizens" to carry concealed weapons. Trump's order establishes a task force that he directed to surge law enforcement officers into the city, strengthen pre-trial detention of crime suspects and crack down on people who evade subway fares. According to the D.C. Police Department, violent crime in 2024 was 35% lower than in 2023. For overall crime, it went down 15% in 2024 compared to 2023. For 2025, violent crime was as of this month 27% lower than in 2024 and overall crime was 9% lower than in 2024. The Washington Post reported in early March that the city had seen 30 homicides so far in 2025, an 11% increase year-over-year. Trump's aim, a White House fact sheet said, "is to make Washington, D.C. what it should be - the pride of every American to whom it belongs." Trump has long complained about homeless encampments and crime in the capital. His order established a task force made up of officials from various government agencies to take his demands on board, including deporting illegal migrants. It was unclear how he would go about expediting concealed gun permits. According to the U.S. Concealed Carry Association, residents and non-residents, who are at least 21 years old and take a firearms training course, can obtain concealed carry licenses. The capital city's mayor, Muriel Bowser, told NPR recently that she has cleared many homeless encampments but that Trump "doesn't think there should be any homeless person in the nation's capital." She also complained about the Trump-ordered layoffs at various federal departments headquartered in Washington "How to make Washington D.C. the most beautiful city in the world? You don't make a city beautiful by gutting its workforce. You don't make a city beautiful by leaving buildings vacant. The actions of the federal government are working against our ability to invest in our city," she said.
