Donald Trump has threatened to declare a national emergency and federalise Washington DC's police department if the city does not cooperate with his mass deportation plans. The threat comes days after a 30-day federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) ended.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump accused Mayor Muriel Bowser of presiding over a 'violent criminal takeover' and said she had informed the federal government that the MPD would no longer cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He warned that crime would 'come roaring back' if he allowed this to happen.
Mayor Bowser, a Democrat, issued an executive order earlier this month creating an 'emergency operations center' to coordinate with federal law enforcement agencies. However, the order did not mention ICE, and Bowser stated that immigration enforcement is not the MPD's role. She noted that violent crime had 'notably decreased' since the federal intervention.
Trump invoked a never-before-used clause of the Home Rule Act on 11 August to take control of the MPD for 30 days, also deploying National Guard troops and federal agents. An Associated Press analysis found that about 40% of over 2,300 arrests during the takeover were immigration-related. The Trump administration asked Congress to extend the emergency, but the Republican-controlled House and Senate declined to vote.
