On Friday evening, after an hours-long court battle, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an order to the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) requiring all law enforcement personnel to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, even though some of the District of Columbia's own laws require the opposite.
The Trump administration's federalization of D.C. includes ending its status as a sanctuary city in which the police do everything they can to protect illegal immigrants rather than turn them into ICE when warranted.
Bondi's latest directive rescinds an earlier one in which she attempted to replace MPD Chief Pamela Smith with the current DEA head Troy Cole.
Instead, Cole will be her "designee" to oversee MPD's compliance with the new order.
The decision to back off from replacing Smith came after District Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee, said she wanted MPD and the Trump administration to come to a compromise.
If they didn't, Reyes was prepared to issue an order blocking Smith's replacement.
“The way I read the statute, the president can ask, the mayor must provide, but the president can’t control,” Reyes said.
Seems like D.C. has been put on notice that once the president asked, through Bondi, for police to cooperate with ICE rather than work against it, that's exactly what they have to do.
Law enforcement in D.C., along with many of its Democratic officials, has fiercely resisted the federal takeover of its district, particularly the capital of Washington, D.C. where the federal government is headquartered.
Even so, the Trump administration is touting its successes since the takeover, including more than 100 arrests with almost one-third of those being illegal immigrants who will now face deportation.
The administration is also emptying the homeless encampments around the city, giving the people living in them a chance to get housing and other help.
It seems like the straw that broke the camel's back was the brutal attack of DOGE staffer Will Coristine by a group of teenagers as he tried to protect his girlfriend.
Following that incident, Trump ramped up his calls for federalization and decided to mobilize the National Guard to help re-establish law and order.
Of course, this has only given Democrats another chance to call him a dictator and a threat to democracy, but they had at least the last 60 years to do it themselves and didn't.
