Trump Order Targets Crime, Illegal Immigration in Washington (1)

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to create a task force for Washington, DC, aimed at tackling crime and illegal immigration — a sweeping action targeting a city he has long derided as violent, rundown and disorderly.

The order says its goal is to “make the District of Columbia safe, beautiful, and prosperous by preventing crime, punishing criminals, preserving order, protecting our revered American monuments, and promoting beautification and the preservation of our history and heritage.”

The DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force will include members of Trump’s administration and coordinate efforts with local law enforcement agencies to ensure that municipal officials carry out the president’s priorities on crime and immigration.

According to the order, the task force will monitor the city’s “sanctuary-city status” and see to it that Washington enforces federal immigration laws, including redirecting resources to apprehend and deport undocumented migrants. It will also work to deploy a “more robust” federal law enforcement presence in the city. It also seeks to target fare evasion and other crimes on the local public transit system.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump cast US cities as beset by crime, and his criticism often signaled out the nation’s capital, which he painted as dangerous and marred by graffiti, vandalism and homelessness.

Trump has vowed to beautify the city during his second term, even as his administration moves to slash the federal government’s workforce and examines moving some agencies out of the capital — initiatives that risk undercutting the region’s economy.

The city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, had sought to defuse Trump’s threats to take over Washington, moving during his second term to clear homeless encampments and removing a memorial to the Black Lives Matter movement near the White House. Bowser had met with Trump after the election and expressed optimism that she could work with the president.

DC is a heavily Democratic city that voted for Trump’s opponents in all three of his presidential runs and has regularly been a target of Republicans over its liberal policies.

The order signed Thursday also aims to provide assistance to facilitate the prompt accreditation of the city’s forensic crime laboratory, help the Metropolitan Police Department with recruitment and retention of officers and review policies on seeking pretrial detention of criminal defendants to ensure that “individuals who pose a genuine threat to public safety are detained to the maximum extent permitted by law.”

The text also says the task force will aim to provide help to more quickly process and lower the cost of concealed carry license requests in the city. That move runs counter to many of the city’s own efforts to reduce firearm possession and prevent gun violence, a key priority for Washington’s Democratic leaders.

Trump’s order also calls for members of his Cabinet to coordinate with local officials to implement a “a program to beautify” the city, which would include a “coordinated” plan for monuments, facilities, land, parks and roadways in and around the district.

It would also seek to restore public monuments, memorials and other such landmarks that have been “damaged or defaced, or inappropriately removed or changed” in recent years. It also calls for the Interior secretary to issue a directive for the National Park Service to remove and clean up homeless encampments and graffiti on lands within their jurisdiction.

(Updates with additional details throughout)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Jennifer A. Dlouhy in Washington at jdlouhy1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Justin Sink at jsink1@bloomberg.net

Meghashyam Mali, Laura Davison

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