Over 40% of arrests in Trump's DC law enforcement surge relate to
immigration, AP analysis finds
[September 11, 2025]
By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and REBECCA SANTANA
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has portrayed his federal law
enforcement surge in Washington as focused on tackling crime. But data
from the federal operation, analyzed by The Associated Press, shows that
more than 40% of the arrests made over the monthlong operation were in
fact related to immigration.
The finding highlights that in the nation’s capital, the administration
continued to advance its hardline immigration agenda.
The Trump administration has claimed success in the federal takeover in
D.C., saying it has led to more than 2,300 arrests, including more than
a dozen homicide suspects, 20 alleged gang members and hundreds of
people accused of drug and gun crimes. More than 220 illegal guns have
been taken off the street, including in one case from a teen who made a
concerning social media post about a school, officials said.
Yet the prominence of immigration arrests — more than 940 people — has
fueled criticism that the true purpose of the operation may have been to
expand deportations.
“The federal takeover has been a cover to do federal immigration
enforcement,” said Austin Rose, a managing attorney at Amica Center for
Immigrant Rights, an advocacy group. “It became pretty clear early on
that this was a major campaign of immigration enforcement.”
For critics, the effort appears less a one-off push against crime in the
capital than a model for federal intervention and the highlighting of
violent crime in other cities led by Democratic mayors, a familiar
political playbook that Trump leaned on during the 2020 campaign.
Already, officials in Chicago, long a foil for the administration’s
law-and-order rhetoric, were bracing for an influx of immigration agents
and possibly National Guard troops. Trump himself fanned speculation
over the weekend, posting on social media a parody image from
“Apocalypse Now” with helicopters looming over Chicago and the caption:
“I love the smell of deportations in the morning.”
Unclear how many faced non-immigration charges
The administration has repeatedly argued that deportations are
inseparable from crime reduction, often casting those arrested by
immigration authorities as the “worst of the worst.” Still, it remains
unclear how many of those taken into custody in Washington had any other
charges pending.
In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said many had
prior arrests, convictions or outstanding warrants for crimes like
assault, drug possession and child sexual abuse, without specifying a
number.
“Law enforcement is doing an outstanding job removing these threats from
D.C. communities – the focus of this operation has been stopping violent
crime committed by anyone, regardless of their immigration status,”
Jackson said in an email.
Internal law enforcement reports obtained by the AP provide a partial
picture. Over 10 days sampled during the surge, about 22 percent of
those arrested on immigration violations had criminal records, including
for driving while intoxicated, drug possession, grand larceny and
burglary. That sample makes up a third of the entire period. Figures for
other days were not immediately available.
Trump’s D.C. operation was launched to address a “crime emergency.”
Trump's emergency order is set to expire
On Aug. 11, Trump invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home
Rule Act in an executive order to declare a “crime emergency” so his
administration could take over the city’s police force. That order is
set to expire overnight Wednesday. He signed a directive for Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth to activate the National Guard, which remains in
the city along with other federal agents.
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Members of the National Guard patrol Lafayette Park by the White
House, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025, in Washington, while protester Will
Roosien, of Grand Rapids, Mich., who says he hopes to inspire others
of his generation to protest, holds up a sign about the MAGA
movement. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
While immigration enforcement agents have been part of the operation
since the beginning, Trump has put an emphasis on wanting to address
the city’s crime rates, which figures show slowed during the federal
law enforcement surge but were already falling before it. Congress
let the emergency order expire on Wednesday, but National Guard
troops are expected to remain deployed in the city.
Just a few days after the president declared a crime emergency,
Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered city officials to revoke the
district’s “sanctuary policies,” signaling the administration’s
efforts to focus on immigration enforcement in the operation.
Sanctuary policies generally limit cooperation by local law
enforcement with federal immigration officers.
After a lawsuit by D.C. officials, the administration agreed to
leave the city’s police chief in control of the department, but
Bondi, in a new memo, directed police to cooperate with federal
immigration enforcement regardless of any city law.
In Bondi’s order last month on “restoring safety and security” to
the nation’s capital, she wrote the dangers posed by violent crime
in the city are “multiplied by the District’s sanctuary city
policies.” She added that the “proliferation of illegal aliens into
our country during the prior Administration, including into our
Nation’s capital, presents extreme public safety and national
security risks to our country.”
Peer-reviewed academic studies have generally found no link between
immigration and violent crime, though conclusions vary based on the
data examined.
Immigrants felt the clampdown through the surge
Immigration and Customs Enforcement made immigration-related arrests
in the Washington area before the operation launched. But the
agency’s presence has been much more visible since the Aug. 11
launch of the operation. Activists across the city have responded,
often publicizing on social media locations where ICE has been seen
and sharing videos of agents arresting people.
Immigrants worried about checkpoints or arrests have furiously been
sharing information across messaging apps about streets to avoid.
Activists have also stepped in to deliver food to immigrants fearful
of leaving their homes because they risk encountering federal
officers surging into the city.
“It’s created unimaginable fear and forced people to completely
alter their routines, not go to work,” said Rose of the advocacy
group.
In social media posts, the Homeland Security Department has
highlighted the number of people it has arrested for immigration
violations as part of the Trump administration’s violent crime
operation in D.C. In one such post, it said staff at Immigration and
Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection were being
deployed to “help clean up the streets of our nation’s capital.”
“DHS will support the re-establishment of law and order and public
safety in DC, which includes taking drug dealers, gang members, and
criminal aliens off city streets,” the department said.
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