Trump administration agrees to keep DC police chief in place, but with
immigration enforcement order
[August 16, 2025]
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Friday reversed course and
agreed to leave the Washington, D.C., police chief in control of the
department, while Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a new memo, directed
the District’s police to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement
regardless of any city law.
The order from Bondi came after officials in the nation’s capital sued
Friday to block President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Washington
police. The night before, his administration had escalated its
intervention into the city’s law enforcement by naming a federal
official as the new emergency head of the department, essentially
placing the police force under the full control of the federal
government.
The attorney general’s new order represents a partial retreat for the
Trump administration in the face of intense skepticism from a judge over
the legality of Bondi's earlier directive. But Bondi also signaled the
administration would continue to pressure D.C. leaders to help federal
authorities aggressively pursue immigrants in the country illegally,
despite city laws on the books that limit cooperation between police and
immigration authorities.
In a social media post Friday evening, Bondi criticized D.C. Attorney
General Brian Schwalb, saying he “continues to oppose our efforts to
improve public safety.” But she added, “We remain committed to working
closely with Mayor Bowser.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office said late Friday that it was still
evaluating how it can comply with the new Bondi order on immigration
enforcement operations. The police department already eased some
restrictions on cooperating with federal officials facilitating Trump’s
mass-deportation campaign but reaffirmed that it would follow the
district’s sanctuary city laws.
In a letter sent Friday night to D.C. citizens, Bowser wrote: “It has
been an unsettling and unprecedented week in our city. Over the course
of a week, the surge in federal law enforcement across D.C. has created
waves of anxiety.”
She added that “our limited self-government has never faced the type of
test we are facing right now,” but added that if Washingtonians stick
together, “we will show the entire nation what it looks like to fight
for American democracy – even when we don’t have full access to it.”
The legal battle was the latest evidence of the escalating tensions in a
mostly Democratic city that now has its police department largely under
the control of the Republican president's administration. Trump’s
takeover is historic, yet it had played out with a slow ramp-up in
federal law enforcement officials and National Guard troops to start the
week.
As the weekend approached, though, signs across the city — from the
streets to the legal system — suggested a deepening crisis over who
controls the city’s immigration and policing policies, the district’s
right to govern itself and daily life for the millions of people who
live and work in the metro area.
A push for compromise
The two sides sparred in court for hours Friday before U.S. District
Judge Ana Reyes, who is overseeing the district's lawsuit. She indicated
the law likely doesn’t grant the Trump administration power to fully
take over city police, but it probably does give the president more
power than the city might like.
“The way I read the statute, the president can ask, the mayor must
provide, but the president can’t control,” said Reyes, who was nominated
to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden. The judge pushed the two
sides to make a compromise.
An attorney for the Trump administration, Yaakov Roth, said the move to
sideline Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith came after an
immigration order that still held back some aid to federal authorities.
He argued that the president has broad authority to determine what kind
of help police in Washington must provide.
The police takeover is the latest move by Trump to test the limits of
his legal authorities to carry out his agenda, relying on obscure
statutes and a supposed state of emergency to bolster his tough-on-crime
message and his plans to speed up the mass deportation of people in the
United States illegally.
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Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration patrol along U
Street in northwest Washington, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
It also marks one of the most sweeping assertions of federal
authority over a local government in modern times. While Washington
has grappled with spikes in violence and visible homelessness, the
city’s homicide rate ranks below those of several other major U.S.
cities, and the capital is not in the throes of the public safety
collapse the Trump administration has portrayed.
The president has more power over the nation’s capital than other
cities, but D.C. has elected its own mayor and city council since
the Home Rule Act was signed in 1973.
Trump is the first president to exert control over the city’s police
force since it was passed. The law limits that control to 30 days
without congressional approval, though Trump has suggested he’d seek
to extend it.
Chief had agreed to share immigration information
Bondi’s Thursday night directive to place the head of the Drug
Enforcement Administration, Terry Cole, in charge of the police
department came even after Smith had told MPD officers hours earlier
to share information with immigration agencies regarding people not
in custody, such as someone involved in a traffic stop or
checkpoint. The Justice Department said Bondi disagreed with the
police chief’s instructions because they allowed for continued
practice of “sanctuary policies,” which generally limit cooperation
by local law enforcement with federal immigration officers.
Meanwhile, advocates in Washington were trying to advise immigrants
on how to respond. Anusce Sanai, associate legal director for the
Washington-based immigrant nonprofit Ayuda, said they're still
parsing the legal aspects of the policies.
“Even with the most anti-immigrant administration, we would always
tell our clients that they must call the police, that they should
call the police," Sanai said. “But now we find ourselves that we
have to be very careful on what we advise.”
Amy Fischer, an organizer with Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid, said
that before the federal takeover, most of what they had seen in the
nation’s capital was Immigration and Customs Enforcement targeting
specific individuals. But since last Friday night they’ve seen a
“really significant change,” she said, with ICE and federal officers
doing roving patrols around the city.
She said a hotline set up by immigration advocates to report ICE
activity “is receiving calls almost off the hook.”
ICE said in a post on X that their teams had arrested “several”
people in Washington Friday. A video posted on X showed two
uniformed personnel putting handcuffs on someone while standing
outside a white transport van.
Residents are seeing a significant show of force
A population already tense from days of ramp-up has begun seeing
more significant shows of force across the city. National Guard
troops watched over some of the world’s most renowned landmarks, and
Humvees took position in front of the busy main train station.
Volunteers helped homeless people leave long-standing encampments —
to where was often unclear.
Friday night along the district's U Street, a popular nightlife
corridor, an Associated Press photographer saw officers from the
FBI, the DEA, the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Park Police,
U.S. Marshals and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives.
As the District challenged the Trump administration in court Friday,
more than 100 protesters gathered less than a block away in front of
police headquarters, chanting "Protect home rule!” and waving signs
saying “Resist!"
___
Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer, Matt Brown, Ashraf
Khalil, Michael Kunzelman, Rebecca Santana and Will Weissert in
Washington and Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
contributed.
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