Amid President Donald Trump’s dramatic crackdown on crime in Washington, D.C., the local police force has been ordered to better cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) can now notify ICE agents of individuals who are not in law enforcement custody, including during traffic stops, according to a memo released on Thursday by Chief of Police Pamela Smith. The order further stipulates that MPD members may help with the sharing of “information about persons not in MPD custody” and are even permitted to provide transportation for federal immigration employees and detained migrants. (RELATED: DeSantis Doubles Down On Alligator Alcatraz With New Migrant Detention Center)
The memo comes just days after Trump — fed up with crime in the nation’s capital following the savage beatdown of a former DOGE employee popularly known as “Big Balls” — ordered a federal takeover of Washington, D.C. law enforcement in order to reduce crime.
“This is Liberation Day in D.C. and we’re gonna take our capital back,” the president announced Monday. “We’re taking it back. Under the authorities vested in me as the president of the United States, I’m officially invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act and placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control.”
WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 13: FBI agents are followed by protesters in the U street neighborhood on August 13, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Leyden/Getty Images)
Smith’s executive order marks a far cry from typical policy in Washington, D.C., which has long been considered a sanctuary city for its policies prohibiting cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE.
A spokesperson for Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
However, the man leading the Trump administration’s deportation operation says the change comes a little too late.
“Way past due,” Border Czar Tom Homan said in a statement to the DCNF. “Our nation’s capital should be an example to the entire nation that law enforcement should always work with other law enforcement to take illegal alien public safety threats off our streets and out of our neighborhoods.”
“A safer community for families should always be a shared goal. I salute President Trump for making DC safe again,” Homan continued.
Trump has since ordered hundreds of National Guard to the nation’s capital, helping bring order to a city plagued with incredibly high crime statistics.
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