BURSTOfficers with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) will now be able to assist federal agents with immigration enforcement in the District of Columbia, according to a memo issued days after President Trump authorized the deployment of the National Guard to help tackle crime in the nation’s capital.
MPD officers will be able to share information with immigration authorities about people at traffic stops and provide transportation for federal immigration agency employees and those they have detained.
In the Thursday directive, signed by Police Chief Pamela A. Smith, MPD officers will not make any inquiry for the sole purpose of determining a person’s immigration status and officers will not make inquiries into an individual’s immigration status for the “purpose of determining whether they have violated the civil immigration laws or for the purpose of enforcing civil immigration laws.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) has previously said that the District is not a so-called “sanctuary city.” The city has a policy that limits MPD’s cooperation with federal immigration agencies.
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said on Wednesday that D.C. “under federal control is not gonna be a sanctuary city.”
The memo comes three days after the president approved the deployment of the National Guard and other federal agents into the nation’s capital to help curb crime, arguing the District is riddled with it.
FBI Director Kash Patel said on Thursday that 45 arrests were made overnight in the nation’s capital.
Trump’s mobilization of the National Guard troops has been protested by some D.C. residents and sparked pushback from Democratic Party lawmakers.
In the Thursday directive, Smith said that MPD officers will not make arrests based solely on the warrants or detainers issued by federal immigration agencies “as long as there is no additional criminal warrant or underlying offense for which the individual is subject to arrest.”