DC pushes back as Trump ramps up police makeover

White House efforts to tighten its grip on the Washington, D.C., police force are prompting pushback from the city’s leaders, escalating tensions as the Trump administration sought to compel Washington’s help with immigration enforcement.

Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday sought to install an “emergency police commissioner” to approve any new Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) policies, while also demanding the department aid in federal immigration arrests.

It has led the administration in the span of a week to lose the cooperative tone struck Monday, when Bondi claimed she had a “productive meeting” with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and said the two would “work closely” together.

City officials have had their own evolution, from the controlled disappointment initially conveyed by Bowser when she said she would “work every day to make sure it’s not a complete disaster” to the city’s attorney general launching a suit challenging the police takeover.

The week ended with the fight landing in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, who at a hastily scheduled hearing raised concerns about portions of Bondi’s new order but urged the two sides to work together. After convening privately for nearly two hours, the administration agreed to walk back the new commissioner appointment and instead make him a liaison.

“I am very happy that it looks like hopefully this can get figured out without a judge having to do anything, because I think these are the kind of issues that should be decided between the district and the government,” Reyes said.

Despite the détente, it's likely not the end of the legal battle. Reyes said she’ll hold additional proceedings next week, and the city made clear it stands ready to renew its emergency legal effort if it isn’t satisfied. The judge even gave out her clerk’s cellphone number so the parties could reach out if any issues come up over the weekend.

“My sincere hope is that we don't have to be back fighting over this issue again,” D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb (D) said at a press conference at the close of the hearing.

The move to court is a shift from when Bowser initially shrugged off a legal challenge at her Monday press conference after Trump moved to take over MPD. When asked about the possibility, Bowser noted that once Trump declares an emergency, the Home Rule Act “authorizes the president to make those requests and it says the mayor shall comply with those requests.” 

But city leaders’ tune quickly changed following Bondi’s order Thursday that installed Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator Terry Cole to effectively command the force.

Bondi also rescinded an hours-old D.C. order directing more MPD cooperation on immigration in favor of something stronger – likewise lifting policies that barred officers from conducting immigration arrests for individuals who have no other criminal arrest warrant and to not inquire about someone’s immigration status for the sole purpose of “enforcing civil immigration laws.”

“In my nearly three decades in law enforcement, I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive,” MPD Chief Pamela Smith wrote in a sworn court filing.

Bowser said that she was caught off-guard by the late Thursday order.

“We were surprised,” Bowser said after the close of the court hearing, noting that Bondi had called their earlier meeting productive. 

“And without notice, we got the order.”

But in court, Justice Department attorney Yaakov Roth suggested it was the city that was responsible for any breakdown in cooperation.

“We want it to work. We’re not looking to create delay and confusion,” Roth said.

The tensions come as the administration’s efforts in the capital ramp up, with 800 National Guard troops now having been mobilized to the city alongside a surge of federal law enforcement agents and city police.

They’ve been conducting checkpoints across the city along with other actions, with arrests nearing 200.

City and federal leaders are also at odds over the purpose of the policing activities.

Of the 33 arrests on Thursday, nearly half, 15, were of non-U.S. citizens. 

And of the 135 arrests this week broken down by Bondi, 75 were listed as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests.

Federal officials have also stressed the seizure of illegally purchased weapons, something that Bowser indicated was a priority for her after decades of D.C. efforts to limit handguns, including in a ban that was struck down by the Supreme Court.

"We know that we have to get illegal guns off of our streets, and if we have this influx of enhanced presence, we know that it's going to make our city even better,” Smith said earlier this week as she discussed how the city would be “working side by side with our federal partners.”

But immigration seems to be another matter, one where the city has traditionally sought to keep its officers outside of enforcement, though they may be compelled under the order.

D.C. officials on Thursday directed MPD officers to be even more cooperative with federal officials, allowing the sharing of citizenship information for those pulled over for traffic stops and also allowed local officers to provide transportation for detained subjects.

But under existing city policy, it still prohibited to use databases for the sole purpose of checking someone’s immigration status and for arresting people for civil immigration violations when they had no other outstanding criminal warrant.

It was that latest order, as well as the existing policies, that were targeted late Thursday by Bondi as she installed Cole, igniting the suit challenging the federal takeover. 

The city asserts that Bondi went beyond the Home Rule Act’s emergency authorities, which only require D.C. to provide the president with MPD’s “services.” While that provision may mean Trump can ask for officers and resources, the city says it does not allow the administration to upend MPD’s command structure or upend D.C.’s immigration laws.

That suit said the shoving aside of D.C.’s protocols for officers when it comes to immigration matters failed to take into account the “considered judgment of MPD leaders who are deeply familiar with the District’s law enforcement and public safety needs.” 

But even Schwalb's office on Friday acknowledged the city may ultimately not have the power to resist demands to help with federal operations.

“Look we know that the law under the Home Rule Act allows the federal government, during a course of an emergency, to request the services of MPD in furtherance of a federal purpose. And whether it's clearing [homeless] encampments that are adjacent to or near federal land or that might interfere with federal employees, if it's enforcement of immigration laws…we will have to confront that as it comes,” he said.

“We have made very clear that we have laws in our city and that the services that MPD provides in furtherance of a request from the President, those services must comply with the law.”