For years, Washington, D.C.’s sanctuary city laws barred local police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. However, a recent order from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi effectively nullifies many of these rules—so long as President Donald Trump retains federal control of the district.
Two weeks ago, Trump declared a crime emergency in the nation’s capital and federalized the Metropolitan Police Department for 30 days—the maximum period allowed for a state of emergency before an authorization from Congress is required to lengthen it.
The Trump administration has been in an on-again, off-again legal battle with local officials over whether local police officers can assist federal immigration authorities like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with arresting illegal aliens.
In 2020, the D.C. Council passed a law prohibiting local law enforcement from cooperating with federal officials, effectively turning the District of Columbia into a “sanctuary city.” The local law also prohibits ICE officials from interrogating people in police custody.
Less than a week after Trump federalized the police, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith issued an order allowing officers to share information about individuals “not in MPD [Metropolitan Police Department] custody (e.g., during traffic stops)” with federal immigration authorities and provide transportation to federal officers and “detained subjects.”
The order still prohibited local police from looking into an individual’s immigration status for the purpose of enforcing immigration laws and prohibited ICE from interrogating persons in police custody and other civil immigration enforcement measures within the district.
Less than a day later, Bondi rescinded Smith’s order, appointed Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terry Cole as the district’s “emergency police commissioner” and suspended the sanctuary city laws.
Within 12 hours, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued the Trump administration, calling the order a “hostile takeover” and “unlawful.”
Soon after, the Trump administration and the district government struck a deal: Cole would serve as Bondi’s “designee,” meaning he will have to ask Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser for the police department’s assistance in enforcing federal immigration laws for the duration of Trump’s emergency order.
Bondi also “affirmatively directed” the police department to fully cooperate with federal immigration officials and assist agents with “locating, apprehending, and detaining aliens unlawfully present in the U.S.,” notwithstanding “D.C. code or MPD policy,” according to her Aug. 15 order.
However, this cooperation will only last if Trump retains control over the Metropolitan Police Department after the 30-day emergency period, which is set to end on Sept. 11.
Trump recently told Daily Signal White House correspondent Elizabeth Mitchell that he plans to work with Congress to extend the 30-day federalization.
“The Metropolitan Police Department has taken an important first step toward public safety,” said U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Criminal aliens are a public safety threat, and there should be no place for sanctuary policies that place crime over the community. We look forward to partnering more closely with our counterparts in Washington, as we make D.C. safe again.”
The Daily Signal reached out to the Department of Justice, the D.C. Mayor’s Office, and the police department to see if the mayor has yet directed the police to cooperate with federal immigration authorities following Bondi’s Aug. 15 order.
“MPD does not make arrests for violations of civil immigration laws. As it relates to immigration enforcement, MPD only makes arrests for criminal warrants and criminal judicial orders,” said an MPD spokesperson, citing D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith’s Aug. 14 order.
We did not hear back from the Department of Justice or the D.C. Mayor’s Office by time of publication.
