President Donald Trump threatened Monday to declare a national emergency and "federalize" Washington, D.C., after Mayor Muriel Bowser said the Metropolitan Police Department would cease cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Trump posted on Truth Social that he would invoke emergency powers if the city did not continue working with federal immigration authorities, saying an end to coordination would allow "crime to come roaring back." The threat came after Bowser said the city would return to the "pre-emergency status quo" and would stop assisting with the transportation of ICE detainees.
Since the administration launched its enforcement operation last month, federal authorities have reported more than 2,000 arrests in the district, with undocumented migrants accounting for nearly half of those arrests, according to figures cited by the administration. Trump asserted that federal officers and National Guard troops had dramatically reduced violent crime in the city, writing that there was "virtually NO CRIME" under the federal presence and that businesses were thriving.
Bowser had issued an executive order earlier in the summer directing the Metropolitan Police to coordinate with federal law enforcement during the period of heightened federal activity. She told reporters last week that her order required the return to prior practices now that Congress did not renew the president's emergency authority over the district.
Trump's authority to place local forces under federal control in the District of Columbia expired last month after lawmakers declined to extend it, making the threat to declare a new national emergency a potential legal pivot point. If the president were to declare a national emergency over the district, he would have the authority to deploy the National Guard and federalize local law enforcement operations; the report on the matter noted there are no statutory time limits on the president's command of the Guard during an emergency.
More than 2,000 National Guard members from six states remain stationed across the city, armed and performing security duties, officials said. Guard members have been visible in parts of the capital since the administration's August executive order, carrying pistols and rifles while patrolling streets and assisting federal officers.
Bowser framed the change as a restoration of local control following the expiration of the federal emergency authority. She has been a frequent critic of the federal operation and its scope in the district, arguing previously that long-term federal control over local policing undermines the city's autonomy.
The president amplified those critiques on social media, blaming Bowser and what he described as "Radical Left Democrats" for what he called years of permissive local policies and portraying the federal intervention as a reversal of that trend. "To the people and businesses of Washington, D.C., DON'T WORRY, I AM WITH YOU, AND WON'T ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. I'll call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!!" he wrote.
Legal scholars and civil liberties groups have raised concerns about broad uses of emergency powers and the prolonged presence of armed troops in a U.S. city, while administration officials argue the measures have been necessary to address public safety. Congressional leaders last month declined to extend the emergency authority, ending the explicit federal control over the city's Metropolitan Police, a move that prompted Bowser's order to restore prior practices.
The dispute sets up a potential confrontation between the White House and the D.C. mayor's office over immigration enforcement and public safety, with immediate implications for the roughly 2,000 National Guard personnel still in the city and for coordination between local and federal law enforcement agencies. The mayor's office and the White House did not immediately provide new public comments beyond the statements posted by Bowser and the president.
The situation remains fluid, and any declaration of a national emergency would likely prompt legal challenges and renewed debate in Congress about the limits of presidential authority over the District of Columbia and the appropriate use of federal forces in American cities.