As criticism of President Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown intensifies following the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minnesota, D.C. officials won’t say exactly when and how local police have worked with federal agents — including ICE.
In a recent letter to the D.C. Council, Interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll insisted that MPD “remains committed to its longstanding policy prohibiting enforcement of civil immigration laws.” However, he refused to answer numerous detailed questions from lawmakers on joint patrols between MPD and federal agents since August and about arrests made during those patrols — including for immigration violations.
The letter from the council, sent in mid-December, also asked MPD to clarify whether an executive order remains in place allowing officers to provide federal agents with information on people detained during traffic stops. Critics say the order — written during Trump’s 30-day takeover of MPD last year – violates the spirit of D.C.’s sanctuary-city law, which broadly limits cooperation on immigration enforcement.
The lack of answers from MPD is only heightening frustration among D.C. lawmakers, who fume that Mayor Muriel Bowser and police officials have tried to deny what they and many residents say they have seen with their own eyes — local police officers working closely with federal agents, including on immigration enforcement.
“They say they don’t do civil immigration enforcement,” says Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau. “[Carroll] didn't say, ‘We're not supporting them. We're not cooperating with ICE.’ He didn't say, ‘We haven't provided them with any information.’ He didn't say, ‘We're not sharing vehicles.’ He didn't say, ‘We're not caravanning around the city.’ He didn't say, ‘We haven't told them where people hang out.’ Those are the things people are concerned about.”
“The administration may not be willing to admit it but I’ve seen our police officers cooperate with ICE myself,” tweeted Ward 4 Councilmember and mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George this week. “Our police should not be weaponized against our communities.”
In an interview with The 51st, newly minted mayoral contender Kenyan McDuffie struck a similar tone. “The use of ICE and HSI to tear families apart must stop, period,” he says.
Carroll’s non-responses even drew concern from Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto, who chairs the council’s judiciary committee.
“While I appreciate MPD providing a response to our letter about the general state of affairs with federal entities, their response does not provide the detailed information our letter requested and many questions remain unanswered,” she said in a statement. “The council and the public need answers to these questions to better understand how the last several months have been handled with increased federal presence in our city and to inform where we go from here to ensure the safety of all residents and visitors.”
Asked earlier this week about the council’s letter, Bowser called the questioning “ridiculous” and said nothing further would be coming from her or Carroll. “No, we won’t be answering in any other way to that letter,” she said. (Bowser did say police officials would field questions in council hearings, though some councilmembers say in the past they haven't gotten many detailed answers.)
Carroll’s letter to the council came only days after Nadeau released a report documenting a public hearing she held in late October where residents and activists spoke out about incidents involving MPD apparently cooperating with ICE and other federal agencies to make immigration arrests. The report includes a number of recommendations, including that the council should pass legislation strengthening the sanctuary-city law. Lewis George introduced such a bill in mid-December.
The report also recommended that the council “exhaust all means” to ensure that federal agents not wear masks and be readily identifiable, as MPD officers are required to be.
The council’s letter to Carroll also asked for clarity on whether federal agents operating in D.C. are following the same rules and restrictions placed on local police, and if they don’t, who would hold them accountable. That question has taken on additional urgency in the wake of two D.C. shootings — one in October, the other in November — where Homeland Security Investigations agents fired their guns at drivers they said were threatening them with their cars. (Similar claims have been raised to justify the killing of Good.)
Generally speaking, D.C. police officers are not supposed to fire their guns at fleeing cars, and any use of deadly violence is followed by the public release of footage from their body-worn cameras and the names of the officers involved. But since the officers who fired their guns in the two cases late last year are federal agents, those requirements have not applied.
An MPD spokesman tells The 51st that the department’s Internal Affairs Division has concluded its investigations into both shootings, and they were “presented to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia for their charging decision” and shared with ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility for its own investigation.
Still, it seems unlikely that much will come from either office. This week Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and architect of the immigration crackdown, said that federal agents have “federal immunity” for their work. “No one – no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist – can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties,” he said.
Unlike in other cities and states, D.C. is limited in its ability to independently charge federal agents for any alleged violations of the law since those charges would come from the U.S. Attorney for D.C., who is appointed by the president. (In an email, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office says no charges will be filed “because no one was struck.”)
Speaking to The 51st, Nadeau says that she remains worried and vigilant about what could happen in D.C. because of the recent events in Minnesota. “Minnesota was a reminder that this could have happened here, and it still could happen here at any time, because there is so much ICE presence,” she says. “They are armed and untrained, and it's obvious now, in Minneapolis, that they're also seeking to harm American citizens.”
But in his response to the council’s letter, Carroll said there was a possible upside to MPD working with federal agencies in the city. “MPD’s long partnership with these federal agencies, and our ability to help direct their energies on violent crime reduction, has likely blunted some of the widespread focus on nonviolent offenders we saw in the District during the [Trump takeover in August and September] and continue to see in other cities.”
Still, Carroll and Bowser have argued that there’s only so much power that D.C. can wield over federal agencies that are free to operate in the city — whether or not local officials and residents want them. Earlier this month, Bowser said that any focus on ICE’s work in D.C. should be directed to Congress, not her.
“If we don’t want ICE, we have to stop funding ICE. And that decision isn’t made here, it’s made in Congress,” she said. “ICE is patrolling American cities. If we don’t want that, the Congress has to stop funding ICE.”
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