President Donald Trump is raising the stakes on immigration enforcement, touting the success of his boots on the ground tactics using federal law enforcement and National Guard troops in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
More than 1,000 total arrests have been made in the D.C. area as part of a federal crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital, and many of those arrests include illegal immigrants with criminal histories.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security highlighted some of the successes in only two weeks, posting on X Tuesday:
“Trump’s decisive leadership in cracking down on crime in Washington, D.C. has delivered historic results that will have a ripple effect across cities nationwide. Illegal aliens, criminals, and bad actors are hearing our message loud and clear: consequences are here, and LAW and ORDER has returned.”
"People in D.C. are finally remembering what it feels like to be free." @Sec_Noem@POTUS Trump’s decisive leadership in cracking down on crime in Washington, D.C. has delivered historic results that will have a ripple effect across cities nationwide. Illegal aliens, criminals,… pic.twitter.com/aIrHPFGkze
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) August 26, 2025
DHS shared a news clip with Homeland Security Secretary Kristin Noem talking about people being able to walk around or go to a playground without the fear of possibly being attacked, adding that the crime cleanup can work in other cities.
“People in D.C. are finally remembering what it feels like to be free,” Noem told Fox News. “They’ve walked around scared and terrified and worried about what they’re going to do and how they are going to get from place to place and keep their families safe that they forgot what it was like to live without that darkness hovering over them all of the time.”
Trump signed another executive order Monday focused on “law and order” and expanding measures to fight what he describes as a “crime emergency.”
The nation’s capital hasn’t reported a murder in nearly two weeks and federal agents are tracking down wanted fugitives, seizing drugs and taking illegal weapons off the streets.
“Keep getting after it,” FBI Director Kash Patel shared in an update on social media.
– 28 more FBI involved arrests last night in Washington DC
– 4 illegal firearm recoveries
– 7 illegal drug seizures
🚨 Washington DC has gone almost 2 weeks without a murder. Lives are being saved every single day.
Keep getting after it.
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) August 26, 2025
DHS also released the names of five individuals caught in D.C., who include illegal immigrants convicted of rape, child molestation, assault and robbery with a deadly weapon, Fox News Digital reported.
- David Pineda-Medrano, an illegal migrant from Guatemala, was previously convicted of attempted first-degree child sexual abuse and sexual abuse of a minor and assault causing bodily injury.
- Junior Alexi Medina-Fuentes, an illegal migrant from Honduras, was previously convicted of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon in Texas.
- Ja Mi, an illegal migrant from Thailand, was previously convicted of second-degree forcible rape in North Carolina.
- Jorge Andres Garcia-Celis, an illegal migrant from Mexico, was previously convicted of molestation of a minor in California.
- Leonardo Varela-Lopez, a criminal illegal migrant from Mexico, was previously convicted of assault and three counts of driving under the influence in Utah.
Trump declared a crime emergency and federalized police operations in Washington, D.C., earlier this month to get violent crime under control in the nation’s capital. Murders, carjackings, assaults, robberies and widespread retail fraud have impacted residents, tourists, business owners and government employees.
Trump did so under the Home Rule Act of 1973, which allows the president to take control of DC’s police for 48 hours if he “determines that special conditions of an emergency nature exist,” and up to 30 days before it must be passed into law.
Critics argue the takeover in DC is another way to push the administration’s hardline immigration enforcement, using federal agents to circumvent the city’s laws that protect illegal immigrants.
Agents from multiple federal agencies have been making rounds and serving warrants as part of an effort to arrest criminals and deter crime in the D.C. area, including tourist destinations and high-crime neighborhoods.
Roughly 2,300 National Guard soldiers and airmen from Washington, D.C., and six states are already mobilized in the capital, according to a Joint Task Force spokesperson.
They are primarily assigned to “presence patrols” at monuments, checkpoints and traffic stops across all eight wards, in an effort to deter crime and establish a security presence, Fox News Digital reported.
“We’re going to make it safe, and we’re going to then go on to other places, but we’re going to stay here for a while,” Trump said to dozens of law enforcement agents and National Guard members gathered outside a US Park Police facility in DC to hear him speak last week.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently authorized those Guard members to carry weapons if needed. In D.C., the troops operate under direct presidential authority. In most of the states, Guard forces fall under the governors’ command but the president can federalize guard troops during emergencies.
The administration also recently announced 1,700 National Guardsmen are set to mobilize in 19 states to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with “clerical support and other logistical tasks for processing illegal aliens at ICE facilities.”
White House officials have said the National Guard activations are not related to Trump’s talks of expanding the federal crime crackdown to other cities.
“The National Guard mobilizing to assist ICE processing with clerical and logistical tasks in several states is not the same as the President’s actions to stop crime in DC,” a White House official told Fox.
However, Trump has indicated he intends to broaden the D.C. mission to other cities—despite outrage from Democratic mayors who have let crime and homelessness flourish on the streets.
“I think Chicago will be our next. And then we’ll help with New York,” Trump said last week, speaking from the Oval Office on Friday. “They’re wearing red hats, African American ladies, beautiful ladies, are saying, ‘Please, President Trump, come to Chicago.’”
In Monday’s executive order, Trump authorized the Pentagon to create specialized National Guard units to “deal with public order issues” and respond to civil unrest.
In June, Trump activated National Guard troops in California to help restore order after violent anti-ICE protestors in Los Angeles torched cars, defaced buildings, looted businesses and blocked the freeway.
The order also called on Hegseth to begin immediately training and equipping a “specialized unit” within the D.C. National Guard “that is dedicated to ensuring public safety and order in the Nation’s Capitol.” The order says members of the unit would be “deputized” to enforce federal law.
CNN reported that officials said the administration has been planning to deploy the National Guard to Chicago.
Big Blue City mayors aren’t interested in having Trump help to get crime under control or round up illegal immigrants, especially using National Guard troops, per a CNN report. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said that won’t happen, calling Trump’s approach “uncoordinated, uncalled for and unsound.”
Meanwhile, Johnson and other US mayors want the Trump administration to restore more than $800 million in violence and crime prevention grants the U.S. Department of Justice has withheld to force states into cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts, CNN reported.
Johnson accused Trump of “stoking fear and division while criminalizing poverty.”
“Sending in the National Guard could destabilize our public safety efforts and would be counterproductive to rebuilding trust between residents and law enforcement,” Johnson’s office said in a statement.
