Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday evening directed the Washington, DC, mayor and police department to end the capital’s sanctuary city policies and formalized the federal government’s control of DC police.
In an order, Bondi declared that Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency, is now operating as the district’s “emergency police commissioner,” giving him full control over the police department during the federal takeover.
Bondi further ordered the DC Metropolitan Police Department to abandon a directive Chief Pamela Smith signed earlier in the day giving officers limited ability to share information with federal immigration officials. And, the order said, MPD leaders “must receive approval from Commissioner Cole before issuing any further directives.”
Justice Department officials believed that earlier directive was meant to reinforce the type of sanctuary city policies that DOJ has vowed to put an end to, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
In addition to ordering that the directive be rescinded, Bondi instructed DC Mayor Muriel Bowser to get rid of two additional police policies aimed at protecting undocumented migrants, including one that prevents MPD from arresting an individual solely for federal immigration warrants.
This comes after President Donald Trump earlier this week declared a crime emergency and federalized DC’s police, tapping Cole, the DEA chief, as interim federal commissioner of MPD.
Bowser quickly pushed back on Bondi’s order on social media, writing, “There is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal official.”
Bowser also shared a letter to Smith from DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb, who wrote“It is my opinion that the Bondi order is unlawful, and that you are not legally obligated to follow it.”
CNN has reached out to MPD for comment.
Bondi’s move makes clear that the federal police takeover in DC will go hand-in-hand with the Trump administration’s hardline immigration enforcement goals, using control over law enforcement in the district as a way to put an end to the city’s laws that protect undocumented migrants.
The move makes clear that the federal police takeover in DC will go hand-in-hand with the Trump administration’s hardline immigration enforcement goals, using control over law enforcement in the district as a way to put an end to the city’s laws that protect undocumented migrants.
“DC will not remain a sanctuary city actively shielding criminal aliens,” Bondi said in an interview on Fox News Thursday. “Will not happen.”
Christina Henderson, a member of the DC City Council, responded to the order on social media Thursday, writing “Respectfully, the Attorney General does not have the authority to revoke laws.”
Earlier Thursday, Smith signed an executive order allowing DC police officers to share information about people not in their custody with federal immigration enforcement agencies, as well as allowing local police to assist with transporting the agencies’ personnel and detainees.
However, the earlier order — citing DC law and police code of conduct — continues to prohibit officers from looking through police databases solely for a person’s immigration status, from making inquiries about a person’s immigration status “for the purpose of determining whether they have violated the civil immigration laws or for the purpose of enforcing civil immigration laws” and from arresting anyone based only on federal immigration warrants.
This story has been updated with additional information.
