D.C. Government Changes Some of Its Policies

By: Miriam Edelman

D.C.’s government has appeared to change some of its policies regarding homeless encampments and D.C.’s status as a sanctuary city due to pressure from President Donald Trump and the federal government. These actions come around the same time as D.C.’s Mayor Muriel Bowser appearing to end D.C.’s Black Lives Matter Plasa (BLM Plaza) amidst pressure from Congress (as was discussed in DCNOW’s blog post, entitled “D.C.’s Black Lives Matter Plaza Is No More”). Bowser changed stances regarding BLM policy, evolving from her administration saying BLM is a “permanent monument” to ending BLM Plaza. Likewise, she altered her stance on D.C.’s status as a sanctuary city, moving from saying D.C. is a sanctuary city to remarking that the sanctuary city term is “misleading.” Bowser is trying to cooperate more with Trump.

Perhaps, the D.C. government fears what the federal government would do to the nation’s capital. As was discussed in DCNOW’s blog pieces, entitled “Trying to End Home Rule” and “Congress Again Tries to End D.C. Home Rule,” some Members of Congress want to end D.C.’s limited home rule, and Trump would like to take over D.C. In addition, D.C. seemed to be on the verge of losing the ability to spend some of its own local funding.  On March 10, 2025, ABC7 reported, “A proposed federal spending bill aimed at preventing a government shutdown would require D.C. to spend at its budgeted level from last fiscal year, a reduction of almost $1.1 billion, according to District officials.” The Washington Post wrote “effective cancellation of the District’s current $21 billion budget would represent the most dramatic exertion of federal power over the city in years.” D.C. has at least temporarily lost the money.

Homeless Encampments

On March 5, 2025, on Truth Social, Trump posted:

“We have notified the Mayor of Washington, D.C., that she must clean up all of the unsightly homeless encampments in the City, specifically including the ones outside of the State Department, and near the White House. If she is not capable of doing so, we will be forced to do it for her! Washington, D.C. must become CLEAN and SAFE! We want to be proud of our Great Capital again. Thank you Mayor Bowser for your efforts on behalf of the Citizens of our Country. Hopefully you will be successful!

DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA”

That night, after a Trump employee called Bowser, D.C.’s employees visited a homeless encampment close to the State Department, which Trump mentioned in his social media post. The encampment had at least 17 tents. City workers started to clear the encampment and informed residents that they must leave by the following day.

According to The Washington Post, a city spokesperson said that D.C. already intended to end ten encampments between February 27 and March 13. However, as the newspaper reported, “But the mayor accelerated efforts at one of those locations, by the E Street Expressway near the Virginia Avenue NW, after a phone call with the Trump administration Wednesday.”

At a news conference, Bowser said “We responded to the location identified.” She also said that she viewed the Trump Administration call as a notification. She commented that the Trump Administration was “not ordering us to do anything.” She added “We always clear homeless encampments.” She also remarked, “We always do, and we do it according to protocols that have worked in the District that won’t have the effect of just moving people around, but trying to get them housed.”

On March 7, 2025, Trump was active on Truth Social about encampments. He seemed to post before and after photos of encampments

Under Bowser, D.C. tried to decrease homeless encampments and provide housing for some unhoused people. According to Wayne Turnage, deputy mayor of D.C.’s health and human services, D.C. decreased the number of tents by half during the previous two years.

While President Trump spoke at the Department of Justice on March 14, 2025, he even discussed crime in D.C.:

“But we also want them [FBI staff] in D.C., and if for no other reason than we like having law enforcement walk in the streets of our capital because when the bad guys are out there and see there is an FBI agent, that is the ultimate in law enforcement, and they’re not going to be acting so bad. We are cleaning up our city. We’re cleaning up this great capital, and we will not have crime, and we’re not going to stand for crime, and we are going to take the graffiti down, and we’re already taking the tents down, and we are working with the Administration, and if the Administration can't do their job…, we going to have to take it back and run it through the federal government., but we hope the Administration is gonna be able. So far, they've been doing very well. The Mayor has been doing a good job. We said there are tents galore right opposite the State Department. They have to come down, and they took them down right away, and so far, so good, but we want a capital that can be the talk of the world when Prime Minister Modi of India, when the president of France and all of these people, the head of --The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, they all came to see me over the last week and a half, and when they come in, I…had the route run. I didn't want them to see tents. I didn’t want them to see graffiti. I didn’t want them to see broken barriers and potholes and the roads, and we had it looking beautiful, and we’re going to do that for the city, and we’re going to have a crime-free capital. When people come here, they’re not going to be mugged or shot or raped. They going to have a crime-free capital. It’s going be cleaner and better and safer than it ever was. It will not take us long.”

Sanctuary Cities

D.C.'s “sanctuary city” status has been in question this year. Sanctuary cities do not have an exact definition, but they relate to state and local policies that help protect immigrants from federal immigration enforcement.

D.C. has been a sanctuary city. On January 7, 2017, weeks before Trump’s first inauguration, Bowser said D.C. is “doubling down” on being a sanctuary city. D.C.’s police already was directed not to help federal officials with deportation. Bowser said, “We must ensure that all District residents can take advantage of their federal and constitutional rights.” She added, “If immigration enforcement changes and problems arise, DC’s immigrant population will have our support and the support of DC’s legal community.” Under Bowser, like Chicago, Los Angeles, San Franciso, and New York State, D.C. planned to create defense funds for undocumented immigrants. Kevin Harris, a Bowser spokesman, said “The Mayor has heard from many residents who are fearful and uncertain about what the future holds.” He added “[w]e are going to stand with immigrant communities.” Even as recently as November 2024, Bowser said to demonstrators, “I have asserted firmly that we are a sanctuary city, and our policies are clear.”

Status as a sanctuary city may come with major drawbacks, as Republicans threaten to cut federal money. Soon after taking office in January 2025, Trump said “[w]e're trying to end them [sanctuary cities], and a lot of the people in those communities don't want them.” He also said funding to those cities might be cut off.

On March 4, 2025, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which held several D.C.-related hearing during the past Congress (as was discussed in multiple DCNOW’s blog posts), held a hearing entitled “A Hearing with Sanctuary City Mayors.” Witnesses included the Mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver (city and county), and New York City. Interestingly, Washington, D.C., the committee’s and federal government’s perennial punching bag, was not a featured city in the hearing.

Recently, Bowser had been turning against D.C.’s status as a sanctuary city. At a Congressional hearing in December 2024,  Congresswoman Ashley Hinson (R-IA) asked Bowser, “Are you planning to comply with ICE detainer orders if those come to your police department?” Bowser replied, “We will follow the law.” Bowser’s Administration did not say whether Bowser meant local or federal law. D.C. law includes “D.C. Law 23-282. Sanctuary Values Amendment Act of 2020,” which includes “To create a Department of Corrections in the District of Columbia to limit the District's cooperation with federal immigration agencies, including by complying with detainer requests, absent a judicial warrant or order.”

At a media availability on February 21, 2025, Bowser said that sanctuary city “isn’t really represented in our law.” She said she no longer uses sanctuary city to refer to D.C. as she thinks the term is “misleading.” She remarked, “I think it's misleading to suggest to anyone… that if.. you're violating immigration laws, that this is a place where you can violate immigration laws.”

On March 7, 2025, Axis reported that the D.C.’s government’s website about D.C.’s status as a sanctuary city was pulled recently. That website included statements by Bowser after the 2016 elections. Bowser’s spokewoman Susana Castillo wrote, “We removed some webpages as part of a review; as we assess each page, content is being added back.” According to Castillo, the review’s goal was to “update the websites with current content.”

Conclusion

D.C. should become a state. If it were a state, it would be less concerned about potential actions of the federal government.