Trump threatens to take over DC police again over immigration enforcement

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to once again federalize Washington, D.C.’s police force, in what he suggested could come in response to the city’s mayor’s stated refusal to cooperate with immigration enforcement.

Trump’s emergency order, which took over the local police force, expired last week. Hours before it elapsed, Mayor Muriel Bowser said that the city would not cooperate with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement in their continued operations in the nation’s capital. Earlier, she had said the city would work with other federal agencies even after the emergency order expired.

In an early-morning social media post on Monday, Trump said his intervention into the D.C.’s law enforcement had improved crime in the city, a claim Bowser has backed up, though, data shows crime was already falling in Washington before the law enforcement surge began.

Trump said crime could increase if cooperation on immigration enforcement ceases, in which case he would “call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!!”

The mayor’s office declined to comment.

The White House did not say if Trump would follow through on his threat. It also did not say whether the president had considered trying to extend his previous order that placed the city’s police force under federal control. The order was not renewed by Congress and lapsed September 11.

Later Monday, speaking in the Oval Office where he signed an order sending the National Guard into Memphis, Trump said they would federalize the police in Washington if they had to, “but we don’t have to anymore, because it’s in such great shape.”

Bowser issued an order September 2, setting up how the local police will continue working with the federal law enforcement agencies that continue working in the city. The order listed a number of federal agencies she anticipated working cooperatively with the MPD, the local police, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Secret Service, among other agencies. Absent was ICE.

Speaking September 10 at a ribbon cutting ceremony, the mayor said “immigration enforcement is not what MPD does,” referring to the local police department. She added that when the emergency order ends, “it won’t be what MPD does in the future.”

Data analyzed by the Associated Press during the emergency period showed that more than 40% of arrests were immigration related, highlighting that the Trump administration continued to advance its hardline immigration policies as it sought to fight crime in the nation’s capital.

Federal law enforcement agencies and National Guard units from D.C. and eight states are continuing operations in the city. The district’s attorney general filed a lawsuit opposing the use of the military in the city.

On Monday, a group of former civilian leaders and retired four-star level officers weighed in on the case, highlighting what they said were the dangers of presidents deploying the National Guard for law enforcement, which they said could pose “safety concerns for servicemembers and the public alike.” Among the officers, who served during both Republican and Democratic administrations, was former National Security Agency director Michael Hayden.

Trump’s threat comes the same day that the House Committee on Rules is taking up several D.C.-related bills, including a proposal to lower the age at which juveniles can be tried to 14 from 16 for certain serious crimes, as well as restricting the district’s authority over its sentencing laws and its role in selecting judges.

The bills passed out of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last week on a party-line vote.

The district is granted autonomy through a limited home rule agreement passed in 1973, but federal political leaders retain significant control over local affairs, including the approval of the budget and laws passed by the D.C council.