D.C. police to increase cooperation with ICE as part of Trump’s crackdown

Washington D.C. Chief of Police Pamela Smith on Thursday issued an executive order allowing Metropolitan Police Department officers making traffic stops to notify federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents about undocumented immigrants they encounter, NBC affiliate News 4 reported.

This is a departure from the police department’s previous policy and will allow immigrants who have not been detained or charged with a crime to be reported to ICE for possible arrest and deportation.

Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has previously insisted that her city is not a sanctuary city because law enforcement there has cooperated with ICE in the past.

But the city has several pro-immigration policies on the books, including one that allows non-citizens to vote in local elections and another that limits cooperation with federal immigration agencies.

Representatives for Bowser’s office, D.C. police and ICE did not immediately return a request for comment.

President Donald Trump on Monday federalized Washington, D.C.’s local police department and deployed 800 National Guard troops in an effort to crack down on crime in the district — even though crime rates in the city are at their lowest level in decades.

“Let me be crystal clear: Crime in D.C. is ending and ending today,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Monday.

Part of Trump’s action in Washington included mobilizing federal law enforcement officers, including those from ICE, to patrol the streets of Washington alongside Metropolitan Police Department officers.

While some of the ICE officers’ activities in the city earlier this week included routine police activities that were not related to immigration enforcement, officers also conducted a “targeted enforcement operation” to arrest immigrants in a Home Depot parking lot on Tuesday.

Since Trump took office in January for his second term, his administration has prioritized the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, a key campaign promise the president made last year.

ICE officers have this year conducted raids in major cities across the U.S., including some that prompted mass protests in Los Angeles and across the country in June.