The District of Columbia sued the Trump administration and Attorney General Pam Bondi Friday for trying to end local directives that limit cooperation between D.C. police and federal immigration authorities during the Trump administration's takeover of the District's police force.
The Trump administration's attempts to end the policies represents an effort "to divest the District and its residents of any control of their local police force and place it, for all purposes, under the control of the federal government," D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb wrote in a complaint.
Bondi's order terminating the local directives came Thursday night and amounted to a sweeping reversal of "sanctuary" policies in the nation's capital. It allowed the Metropolitan Police Department, at least temporarily, to fully cooperate with federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other immigration authorities. The attorney general said she was naming Terry Cole, the current head of the DEA, as emergency police chief in Washington. She cited Mr. Trump's emergency declaration to reverse several local police policies.
The D.C. attorney general is asking a federal judge to vacate Bondi's order and declare that the U.S. attorney general lacks the authority to issue orders asserting "operational control" over the district's police department.
"These unlawful assertions of authority will create immediate, devastating, and irreparable harms for the District. Most critically, the order threatens to upend the command structure of MPD and wreak operational havoc within the department, endangering the safety of the public and law enforcement officers alike," Schwalb wrote. "There is no greater risk to public safety in a large, professional law enforcement organization like MPD than to not know who is in command."
Bondi rescinded guidance issued by D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith earlier Thursday that allowed police officers to transport ICE agents and their detainees and to share immigration information during traffic stops, but that still barred most local involvement in federal immigration enforcement.
The attorney general also removed guidance that prohibited D.C. police officers from searching databases for the purposes of determining someone's immigration status, even when there's no underlying criminal warrant.
She also suspended rules that barred D.C. police from arresting individuals based on administrative immigration warrants signed by ICE officials — not judges — and from assisting federal agents during such arrests. The rescinded policy required officers to have a criminal nexus before carrying out an arrest, prohibiting arrests solely based on suspected civil immigration law violations.
Bondi's attempts to end the MPD policies clash with the District's 2020 laws that gave local police independent authority from immigration officials. In June, the D.C. Council voted down Mayor Muriel Bowser'e effort to repeal the sanctuary city status in a 2026 budget bill.
CBS News has reached out to Bowser's office for comment.
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