After an hours-long battle in court on Friday, the Trump administration has backed off from its Thursday attempt to temporarily replace Washington, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith with DEA head Troy Cole in an emergency capacity.
After agreeing to leave Smith in control, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo directing D.C. police to comply with federal immigration laws even if they conflict with city laws, which prohibit police from cooperating with ICE in some cases.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes asked the administration and the city to compromise on a solution to the issues that have arisen out of the federal takeover of the district.
“The way I read the statute, the president can ask, the mayor must provide, but the president can’t control,” the Biden-appointed judge said.
In other words, President Donald Trump and his executive branch cannot directly control the execution of laws in D.C., but he can ask the mayor to direct police to follow immigration laws and the mayor must do so.
If push came to shove and no agreement had been forthcoming, Reyes said she would block the Trump administration from replacing Smith.
Faced with this outcome, the administration decided to follow the judge's orders and direct police to do what they wanted, which is to comply with federal immigration laws.
In her court filing against Trump and the administration, Smith said, “In my nearly three decades in law enforcement, I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive."
That seems like a gross exaggeration, but it stands to reason that Smith would not want to be summarily replaced by the executive branch.
In reality, it's another instance where Trump just wants to get the job done and isn't so thoughtful about the nuances of how to work within the existing system to do so.
All in all, Trump's federalization of D.C. has been pretty successful so far, with more than 100 arrests including dozens of illegal immigrants.
They are closing down homeless encampments and offering help and housing to those who were living in them, which should bring a huge improvement to the city.
Trump is correct that the nation's capital should not be an area that is mostly slums and full of drugs and violent crime.
After five total years of living there and having one of his top people brutally attacked, he's had enough.
