4 months in, activists say Trump’s operation in Washington targets immigrants

Federal Operation in D.C. Raises Alarm Over Immigration Enforcement

When President Donald Trump launched a law enforcement operation in Washington, D.C., four months ago, he framed it as a necessary intervention to combat rising crime rates. However, the initiative has increasingly drawn scrutiny for what local leaders and activists describe as a concurrent crackdown on immigrant communities across the nation’s capital.

Official figures reviewed by The Associated Press reveal that one-third of all arrests made during the operation were immigration-related. This has sparked growing concern among immigrant residents who report feeling increasingly targeted and unsafe in their own communities.

“The focus of President Trump’s highly successful D.C. operation has been to address crime committed by anyone, regardless of immigration status,” said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson, defending the initiative. She noted that many arrestees had outstanding warrants, prior convictions, or were committing crimes at the time of their arrest.

However, data released by the University of California Berkeley Deportation Data Project presents a different picture. Of approximately 1,130 immigration arrests made in the heavily Democratic city from the operation’s start through mid-October, 947 individuals—roughly 84 percent—had no criminal record or pending criminal charges.

The federal intervention began in mid-August with an emergency order that temporarily placed the city’s police force under federal control and deployed federal agents alongside hundreds of National Guard troops. Though the emergency order affecting the police expired in September, residents report that the heightened enforcement presence remains visible throughout the city.

Dozens of witnesses at a recent 10-hour municipal hearing described ongoing enforcement actions characterized by masked agents, unmarked vehicles, checkpoints, and arrest sweeps. Residents reported that common targets included school drop-off zones, food distribution sites, landscaping crews, and apartment complexes with large Hispanic populations.

“Every single day my neighbors are being harassed, assaulted and kidnapped,” testified city resident Leah Tribbett. “I could talk for probably the entirety of this hearing and still not recount every single instance of brutality that I’ve seen.”

The operation has reportedly had a chilling effect on daily life for many immigrant residents. Nadia Salazar Sandi, a Bolivian immigrant who has since become a U.S. citizen, told officials that multiple family members have been detained in recent months, leaving “empty seats at Thanksgiving dinner.”

“This is terrifying,” she said of the immigration operations. “I’m a citizen now, and I walk with my passport.”

The tactics employed during these arrests have faced legal challenges. Earlier this month, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from conducting widespread immigration arrests in Washington without warrants or probable cause that those arrested have violated immigration law or pose flight risks.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other plaintiffs’ attorneys argued that federal officers were frequently patrolling neighborhoods with large Hispanic populations, setting up checkpoints, and conducting indiscriminate stops and arrests.

One plaintiff, José Escobar Molina, who had temporary legal protections and had lived in the city for 25 years, described being handcuffed by unidentified federal agents without being asked for identification or any information about his immigration status.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin defended the operations, stating that all arrests in Washington and beyond are carried out lawfully and that all detainees receive due process.

However, Madeleine Gates, associate counsel with the Washington Lawyers’ Committee representing the plaintiffs, countered that they have documented dozens of instances where people were arrested through improper procedures. “What we’ve actually seen in practice are officers arresting people without seeming to know who they are,” Gates said.

The future of the operation remains uncertain. Following the shooting of two National Guard members allegedly by an Afghan national in the city last month, Trump announced plans to deploy hundreds more troops to support the operation, suggesting no imminent end to the federal presence.

Local leaders express frustration at their limited ability to respond. “The frustrating truth,” said city council member Brooke Pinto, “is that we do not have the same levers of power and control, nor the same rights, as a district that every one of the 50 other states have to protect our residents.”

As Washington’s status as a federal district restricts local autonomy, city officials find themselves with few options beyond holding hearings and raising public awareness about what council member Brianne K. Nadeau describes as the normalization of immigration enforcement sweeps that are “not making the nightly news anymore because it’s business as usual.”