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'Their Complicity Is Dangerous': DC Police Chief Slammed for Submitting to Trump's ICE Raids
"The very institution that is supposed to keep district residents safe is now allowing ICE to jeopardize the safety and lives of hardworking immigrants and their families," said one local labor leader.
Aug 14, 2025
The ACLU and a local branch of one of the nation's largest labor unions were among those who condemned Thursday's order by Washington, DC's police chief authorizing greater cooperation with federal forces sent by President Donald Trump to target and arrest undocumented immigrants in the sanctuary city.
Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith issued an executive order directing MPD officers to assist federal forces including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in sharing information about people in situations including traffic stops. The directive does not apply to people already in MPD custody. The order also allows MPD to provide transportation for federal immigration agencies and people they've detained.
While Trump called the order a "great step," immigrant defenders slammed the move.
"Now our police department is going to be complicit and be reporting our own people to ICE?" DC Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) said. "We have values in this city. Coordination and cooperation means we become a part of the regime."
ACLU DC executive director Monica Hopkins said in a statement that "DC police chief's new order inviting collaboration with ICE is dangerous and unnecessary."
"Immigration enforcement is not the role of local police—and when law enforcement aligns itself with ICE, it fosters fear among DC residents, regardless of citizenship status," Hopkins continued. "Our police should serve the people of DC, not ICE's deportation machine."
"As the federal government scales up Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, including mass deportations, we see how local law enforcement face pressure to participate," she added. "Federal courts across the country have found both ICE and local agencies liable for unconstitutional detentions under ICE detainers. Police departments that choose to carry out the federal government's business risk losing the trust they need to keep communities safe."
Understanding your rights can help you stay calm and advocate for yourself if approached by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or police. 🧵
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— ACLU of the District of Columbia (@aclu-dc.bsky.social) August 11, 2025 at 7:30 AM
Jaime Contreras, executive vice president and Latino caucus chair of 32BJ SEIU, a local Service Employees International Union branch, said, "It should horrify everyone that DC's police chief has just laid out the welcoming mat for the Trump administration to continue its wave of terror throughout our city."
"The very institution that is supposed to keep district residents safe is now allowing ICE to jeopardize the safety and lives of hardworking immigrants and their families," Contreras continued. "Their complicity is dangerous enough but helping to enforce Trump's tactics and procedures are a violation of the values of DC residents."
"DC needs a chief who will not cave to this administration's fear tactics aimed at silencing anyone who speaks out against injustice," Contreras added. "We call for an immediate end to these rogue attacks that deny basic due process, separates families, and wrongly deports hardworking immigrants and their families."
The condemnation—and local protests—came as dozens of immigrants have been detained this week as government forces occupy and fan out across the city following Trump's deployment of National Guard troops and federalization of the MPD. The president dubiously declared a public safety emergency on Monday, invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act. Trump also said that he would ask the Republican-controlled Congress to authorize an extension of his federal takeover beyond the 30 days allowed under Section 740.
Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser—a Democrat who calls the occupying agencies "our federal partners"—has quietly sought to overturn the capital's Sanctuary Values Amendment Act of 2020, which prohibits MPD from releasing detained individuals to ICE or inquiring about their legal status. The law also limits city officials' cooperation with immigration agencies, including by restricting information sharing regarding individuals in MPD custody.
While the DC Council recently blocked Bowser's attempt to slip legislation repealing the sanctuary policy into her proposed 2026 budget, Congress has the power to modify or even overturn Washington laws under the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973. In June, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed Rep. Clay Higgins' (R-La.) District of Columbia Federal Immigration Compliance Act, which would repeal Washington's sanctuary policies and compel compliance with requests from the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE. The Senate is currently considering the bill.
Trump's crackdown has also targeted Washington's unhoused population, with MPD conducting sweeps of encampments around the city.
"There's definitely a lot of chaos, fear, and confusion," Amber Harding, executive director of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, told CNN Thursday.
David Beatty, an unhoused man living in an encampment near the Kennedy Center that Trump threateningly singled out last week, was among the victims of a Thursday sweep.
Beatty told USA Today that Trump "is targeting and persecuting us," adding that "he wants to take our freedom away."
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Bowman, Warren Push Biden to Protect Renters From Corporate Price Gouging
"My community is being crushed by the burden of high prices and wages that can't keep pace. Meanwhile, corporate landlords and other profit-driven companies are bringing in record profits," said Bowman.
Jan 09, 2023
A pair of progressives in Congress on Monday led four dozen other lawmakers in calling on U.S. President Joe Biden "to pursue all possible strategies to end corporate price gouging in the real estate sector and ensure that renters and people experiencing homelessness across this country are stably housed this winter."
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) spearheaded the letter to the president, which commends actions his administration has taken so far but also stresses that soaring rent rates are affecting millions of people and more must be done to help them take on profit-driven corporate interests.
"No one should be unhoused in the wealthiest nation on Earth or have to choose between paying rent and basic needs."
The letter highlights various government statistics, including that the cost of shelter rose 0.8% last October, the highest rate in 40 years; median asking rents have jumped 31% while house prices have soared 48% in recent years; and a $100 increase in median rent is tied to a 9% rise in homelessness.
"The cost of rent for Americans is simply too high," Warren said in a statement. "In addition to making robust investments to address the housing shortage, we must use all our tools to protect tenants and reverse consolidation in the housing market that has given corporations unchecked power to inflate rents."
"This is why Rep. Bowman and I are encouraging the Biden administration to make use of these tools and adopt a whole-of-government approach to address the housing crisis in America," she explained.
\u201cI grew up in rent controlled apartments and public housing, and that housing stability is what allows me to be here today. I\u2019m grateful to my colleagues and organizers who are fighting to ensure everyone has access to high-quality, affordable housing.\u201d— Congressman Jamaal Bowman (@Congressman Jamaal Bowman) 1673279388
Specifically, the letter—which comes just three weeks after Biden unveiled a plan to reduce homelessness 25% by 2025—calls on the administration to:
- Direct the Federal Housing Finance Agency to establish protections for renters at properties financed with government-backed mortgages;
- Order the Federal Trade Commission to craft a regulation defining excessive rent hikes as a practice that unfairly affects commerce;
- Require the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to issue guidance on anti-rent gouging and fair housing to cities and counties receiving federal funds;
- Urge the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Justice, and HUD, to investigate corporate landlords accused of illegally discriminating against tenants;
- Encourage states to enact renter protections as well as use American Rescue Plan funding to invest in affordable homes and emergency rental assistance programs;
- Activate Federal Emergency Management Agency resources to help people experiencing homelessness secure permanent, affordable housing and provide longer-term rental assistance; and
- Create a Federal Interagency Council on Tenants' Rights to identify actions that can be taken to support renters, coordinate policy implementation, and engage with underserved communities.
Along with the 50 lawmakers across both chambers of Congress, the letter is backed by more than 80 housing, climate, education, and immigration groups, including the Center for Popular Democracy Action, Debt Collective, Groundwork Collaborative, National Low Income Housing Coalition, People's Action, Revolving Door Project, Sunrise Movement, and Youth Alliance for Housing.
"My community is being crushed by the burden of high prices and wages that can't keep pace," said Bowman, who represents parts of New York City and communities to the north. "Meanwhile, corporate landlords and other profit-driven companies are bringing in record profits. People simply cannot afford to live anymore."
"We must pursue all options on the table that will help renters stay housed in the short-term, while also continuing to collaborate on efforts to realize long-term investments in our nation's affordable and decommodified housing supply," he added. "I look forward to working with the Biden administration to implement the policies outlined in our bicameral letter and do everything in our collective power to keep renters housed."
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From Streets to Cells, Harrowing Violence Inflicted on LGBTQ Prisoners
New report finds LGBTQ people—especially those who are brown, black, or poor—are disproportionately targeted by incarceration and violence
Oct 21, 2015
From policing to sentencing to incarceration, LGBTQ people--especially those who are poor, black, and brown--are systematically targeted and then, once locked up, subjected to "constant violence by both prison staff and other prisoners," a harrowing new study reveals.
Coming Out of Concrete Closets, released Friday by the LGBTQ prison abolition organization Black and Pink, is based on 1,118 prisoners' handwritten responses to a 133-question survey designed with the participation of incarcerated people. Researchers say the findings of the study, the largest-ever survey of this population, indict the U.S. prison system as a whole.
"The prison industrial complex is a tool of racial control to marginalize and contain people of color," Rev. Jason Lydon, national director of Black and Pink and lead author of the report, told Common Dreams. "It is also a tool of homophobia and transphobia."
A stunning 85 percent of respondents reported spending time in solitary confinement at some point, with half reporting two or more years there. Black, Latino, mixed-race, and Native American respondents were two times as likely to have been in solitary confinement than white respondents. Prisons often employ euphemisms such as "protective custody" to justify such policies.
However, the targeting starts long before--in the streets. Nearly a fifth of respondents reported being homeless before being locked up and over a third said they were unemployed. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they were arrested when they were younger than 18 years old, and that ratio jumped to 66 percent among Black and Latino populations.
Once in the court system, LGBTQ people report high levels of inequitable treatment, with over half of transgender women and nonbinary-gendered people saying they faced discrimination from their defense attorneys. Half of Native American respondents and more than 40 percent of Latino and mixed-race respondents reported race- or ethnicity-based discrimination from their lawyers.
In prison, respondents were more than six times more likely to be assaulted than the general population. "Prisoners are over three times more likely to have committed sexual assaults on LGBTQ prisoners than prison staff," the report states. "However, of those who report having been sexually assaulted by a prisoner, 76% also report that prison staff intentionally placed them in situations where they would be at high risk of sexual assault from another prisoner."
"I was placed in solitary after being raped," said one unnamed respondent, and "only released after it drove me to a suicide attempt."
"I was raped BADLY cuz Trans, scared of being hurt cuz of how feminine I am and I was 18 years old," said another.
"As someone who took this survey on the inside, and as someone who has been through sexual assault, this report is very, very important," Ashley Diamond, recently paroled in Georgia, told Common Dreams. Diamond, who is transgender, attracted national media attention when she sued the state of Georgia last month for placing her in a men's prison and subjecting her to abuse.
LGBTQ prisoners also reported denial of access to healthcare, with 44 percent of transgender, nonbinary gender, and Two-Spirit respondents saying they were denied the hormone therapy they requested.
The report urges a litany of reforms to immediately reduce harm, including holding prison staff accountable and facilitating the release of prisoners at their first parole eligibility date. Ultimately, it calls for a reimagining of justice: "Rather than respond to social problems by simply locking people up, new practices for accountability must be instituted that do not rely on incarceration or carceral practices."
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