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u.s. department of homeland security
'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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Dem Congresswomen Demand ICE Agents Clearly Identify Themselves Amid Wave of Imposter Assaults
"Your current practices leave women vulnerable to life-altering violence," the lawmakers said. "It's past time to act."
Aug 11, 2025
Citing "horrifying" incidents in which masked men impersonating U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents kidnap and assault women, more than 30 Democratic congresswoman on Monday demanded that ICE officers clearly identify themselves while conducting enforcement activities.
"All our lives, we are taught to fear masked men in unmarked vehicles. We learn we should run from such men to avoid being kidnapped, sexually assaulted, or killed," 33 members of the Democratic Women's Caucus (DWC) wrote in a letter led by Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), and Nydia Velásquez (D-N.Y.) to Trump administration officials including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, and "border czar" Tom Homan.
"Yet, ICE is increasingly conducting raids and arrests in masks [and] plain clothes, without visible identification or badges, using unmarked vehicles—tactics that cause confusion, terror, and mistrust among the public," the letter continues. "These tactics invited perpetrators of violence against women to take advantage of the chaos by impersonating masked ICE agents in order to target and sexually assault women."
DWC Members sent a letter calling out recent cases of people impersonating ICE to abuse women. We demand DHS and ICE wear visible identification to stop enabling impersonators.Women deserve to be safe. We’ll keep fighting.
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— Democratic Women’s Caucus (@demwomencaucus.bsky.social) August 11, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Reports of masked men—and in one case, a woman—impersonating federal officers began emerging shortly after President Donald Trump returned to the White House and ordered a mass deportation campaign that senior adviser Stephen Miller said aims to arrest at least 3,000 people per day. Since then, there have been reports of impostors abducting and subsequently sexually assaulting, robbing, or extorting women in states including Maryland, New York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
"This cannot continue and must be addressed immediately," the DWC letter insists. "The Democratic Women's Caucus is committed to defending the rights of all women and girls to live in safety. We call on the department to recognize this pervasive issue and to take immediate action."
"We demand that ICE agents visibly and clearly identify themselves when conducting immigration enforcement activities to stop enabling impersonators who leverage women's uncertainty and fear of immigration consequences to rape, harass, and abuse them," the congresswoman wrote.
"Your current practices leave women vulnerable to life-altering violence," the letter adds. "It's past time to act. Just like local police officers, ICE agents must be required to wear visible and clear identification to ensure their safety, better protect women, and deter impersonators. Finally, impersonators must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law and this violence must be denounced by this administration."
In a bid to unmask federal agents, Velázquez in June introduced the No Masks for ICE Act, which would ban agents from wearing facial coverings during enforcement actions and require them to wear clothing displaying their name and agency affiliation.
House lawmakers led by Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) in June also introduced the No Secret Police Act, which would require all Department of Homeland Security and other federal law enforcement officers to show their faces and clearly display their badges and identification when detaining or arresting people.
Similar legislation—the Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement (VISIBLE) Act of 2025—was introduced last month in the U.S. Senate by Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.).
Also in July, upper chamber lawmakers led by Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Tim Kain (D-Va.) proposed the similar Immigration Enforcement Identification Act.
States including California, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee have also introduced or plan to propose legislation banning masked agents and requiring clear identification.
"When agents of the federal government are operating like masked militias, we've crossed a dangerous line by turning immigration enforcement into a paramilitary secret police force that should shock the nation's collective conscience," New York state Sen. Patricia Fahy (D-46), who last month introduced the Mandating End of Lawless Tactics (MELT) Act, said at the time.
"This goes beyond immigration enforcement; it's intimidation and it echoes authoritarian regimes, not the United States of America," Fahy added.
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'What Could Possibly Go Wrong?': Trump's ICE Is Now Recruiting Teenagers
"ICE opening up recruiting to teenagers because they can't find enough adults willing to be their racist storm troopers is some real dystopian shit," said one critic.
Aug 06, 2025
"We're taking father/son bonding to a whole new level."
That's how the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday told social media users that it is lifting age limits for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) applicants—evidence, critics said, of the Trump administration's desperation to fill the ranks of federal agencies tasked with carrying out its cruel and illegal anti-immigrant policies.
In a move reminiscent of how the U.S. military attempted to stem flagging enlistment during the George W. Bush administration's so-called War on Terror by lowering recruitment standards to welcome felons, gang members, white supremacists, and high school dropouts, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Wednesday that "we are ENDING the age cap for ICE law enforcement."
Approved applicants will be joining an agency rife with human rights and legal abuses as it scrambles to satisfy alleged ICE arrest quotas and President Donald Trump's desire to carry out the biggest mass deportation campaign in the nation's history—a campaign of kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and expulsion of innocent people, family separation, concentration camps, terrorization of American communities, alleged torture and sexual crimes, and many other outrages.
Noem told Fox & Friends Wednesday that in addition to lifting the 40-year-old age cap, ICE applicants can now be as young as 18.
"What could possibly go wrong?" independent journalist Tina Vasquez quipped on Bluesky.
Author Patrick S. Tomlinson wrote on X that "ICE opening up recruiting to teenagers because they can't find enough adults willing to be their racist storm troopers is some real dystopian shit."
Wednesday's announcement is the latest Trump administration effort to lure 10,000 new recruits, including by offering $50,000 sign-up bonuses and student loan repayment assistance—policies that can be paid for thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's historic funding for ICE.
Some critics pointed to a similar move to increase recruitment at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where lower hiring standards resulted in increased reports of sexual misconduct and corruption among Border Patrol recruits.
"If they start waiving requirements there like they did for Border Patrol, you're going to have an exponential increase in officers that are shown the door after three years because there's some issue," former senior ICE official Jason Houser told The Associated Press last week.
Sunrise Movement, the youth-led climate campaign, offered some friendly advice for those considering working for ICE: "Instead of joining the Gestapo, perhaps find a unionized workplace that's not involved in kidnapping instead."
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