President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the Washington, D.C., police resulted in more than 2,300 arrests, and 40% of them were related to immigration, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.
In August, Trump’s executive order to declare a “crime emergency” in the nation’s capital expired last week. But he said over the weekend he will issue a similar order once again if local police do not cooperate with immigration enforcement.
In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said the federal takeover had the desired effect by reducing crime in neighborhoods and cleaning up prominent tourist areas in the district. Trump officials even walked to dinner at a local D.C. restaurant last week.
“Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has presided over this violent criminal takeover of our Capital for years, has informed the Federal Government that the Metropolitan Police Department will no longer cooperate with ICE in removing and relocating dangerous illegal aliens,” Trump wrote.
“If I allowed this to happen, CRIME would come roaring back. To the people and businesses of Washington, D.C., DON’T WORRY, I AM WITH YOU, AND WON’T ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. I’ll call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!!”
The Trump administration said the federal takeover made D.C. safe again, reporting it led to more than 2,300 arrests, including more than a dozen homicide suspects, 20 alleged gang members and hundreds of people accused of drug and gun crimes.
More than 220 illegal guns have been taken off the street, including in one case from a teen who made a concerning social media post about a school, officials said.
Trump’s critics don’t care that it worked, and the mainstream media can’t let go of the narrative that it was really intended to push his immigration agenda.
“Yet the prominence of immigration arrests — more than 940 people — has fueled criticism that the true purpose of the operation may have been to expand deportations,” the Associated Press wrote in its analysis of the arrests.
In a statement to the Associated Press, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said many of the illegal immigrants had prior arrests, convictions or outstanding warrants for crimes like assault, drug possession and child sexual abuse, without specifying a number.
“Law enforcement is doing an outstanding job removing these threats from D.C. communities — the focus of this operation has been stopping violent crime committed by anyone, regardless of their immigration status,” Jackson said in an email.
Trump’s decision to take over direct oversight of D.C. police, send in more federal law enforcement and station National Guard troops at monuments and other buildings in D.C. drew the usual ire from Democratic politicians and some residents, who argued they were not wanted or needed in the city.
On Aug. 11, Trump invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act in an executive order to declare a “crime emergency” so his administration could take over the city’s police force.
Congress let the emergency order expire on Wednesday, but National Guard troops are expected to remain deployed in the city, the AP reported.
Trump has threatened to target other crime-ridden Democratic-run cities, but critics have called it a “dangerous power grab” and claim he wants to override local police in sanctuary cities and conduct immigration enforcement.
“For critics, the effort appears less a one-off push against crime in the capital than a model for federal intervention and the highlighting of violent crime in other cities led by Democratic mayors, a familiar political playbook that Trump leaned on during the 2020 campaign,” the Associated Press article continued.
Both residents and officials saw a noticeable reduction in crime in the district, but had mixed reactions to the takeover. WTOP News spoke with residents at Hechinger Mall in Northeast D.C. about the federal surge and whether they thought it was effective.
WTOP reported that everyone said something needed to be done about crime, but some did question the timing of the surge and the real intent of the federal takeover.
One of those who was most vocal people about the surge was a woman named Linda, who works at one of the stores at the strip center: “The first 12 days of it there were no murders. … It should go longer if it’s going to help,” she told WTOP.
Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser expressed support for the federal help. Bowser issued an order on Sept. 2 requiring the city to cooperate with federal law enforcement indefinitely, clarifying however, that DC did not need a “federal emergency,” CNN reported.
Just a few days after the president declared a crime emergency, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered city officials to revoke the district’s “sanctuary policies.”
After a lawsuit by D.C. officials, the administration agreed to leave the city’s police chief in control of the department, but Bondi, in a new memo, directed police to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement regardless of any city law, the AP reported.
