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Tag: federal agents

  • Clergy members gather in DC to pray and protest federal law enforcement surge – WTOP News

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    Members of the D.C. faith community gathered on Freedom Plaza, just steps from the White House and the Wilson Building, to both pray and protest the federal law enforcement surge in the nation’s capital.

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    Clergy gather in DC to pray and protest federal law enforcement surge

    On Thursday, members of D.C.’s faith community gathered on Freedom Plaza, just steps from the White House and the Wilson Building, to both pray and protest the federal law enforcement surge in the nation’s capital.

    The gathering comes amid a growing national debate over federal intervention in local policing in D.C.

    “We’ve gathered together today, God, to come against legislation and policies that would impose itself on the rights of the citizens of the District of Columbia,” said the Rev. Keith William Byrd Sr., pastor of the historic Zion Baptist Church in Northwest D.C.

    One by one, faith leaders stepped up to the microphone, offering prayers for the city and its leaders during what they called an “illegal occupation.”

    “Heavenly Father, we just ask you to be in this place right now — this place called the District of Columbia,” the Rev. Patricia Fears said.

    While the White House credits the deployment of federal officers and National Guard troops with helping reduce crime in the city, the faith leaders said they’re standing up against actions they called unconstitutional.

    “What we see going on is wrong. What we see is not right. It’s not constitutional. We cannot abide by it,” the Rev. Clarence Cross said.

    They were joined by D.C. Council members Matthew Frumin and Robert White, who stood with the crowd in prayer and song.

    “We’re here not just as elected officials, but as neighbors and allies,” Frumin said.

    “At some point, we will get to those pearly gates, and we will be asked what you did in this time. And I don’t know about you, but I know what my answer will be. It’s going to be that I did everything I could,” White said.

    Faith leaders said the vigil is just the beginning. Weekly prayer services and community forums are planned throughout September.

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    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Mike Murillo

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  • Chicago mayor signs executive order directing city to resist Trump’s immigration raids

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    The mayor of Chicago has signed an executive order outlining how the city will attempt to resist Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

    Brandon Johnson pushed back on Saturday against what he called the “out-of-control” Trump administration’s plan to deploy large numbers of federal officers into the country’s third-largest city, which could take place within days.

    The Chicago police department will be barred from helping federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement or any related patrols, traffic stops and checkpoints during the surge, according to the executive order Johnson signed.

    The mayor directed all city departments to guard the constitutional rights of Chicago residents “amidst the possibility of imminent militarized immigration or national guard deployment by the federal government”.

    Related: Trump ‘manufactured crisis’ to justify plan to send national guard to Chicago, leading Democrat says

    When asked during a news conference about federal agents who are presumably “taking orders”, Johnson replied: “Yeah, and I don’t take orders from the federal government.”

    Johnson also blocked Chicago police from wearing face coverings to hide their identities, as most federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers have adopted since the Trump administration took charge this year.

    Last week, the White House requested that a US military base on the outskirts of Chicago be made available to assist with immigration operations, as the Trump administration plans a broader takeover of Democratic-run “sanctuary cities”.

    Chicago is home to a large immigrant population, and both the city and the state of Illinois have some of the country’s strongest rules against cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts. That has often put the city and state at odds with Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

    On Thursday, Tom Homan, the administration’s “border czar”, said Chicago, along with a number of other cities, would soon be targeted in a planned immigration crackdown.

    “Operations are ramping up across the country. But you can see a ramp-up across the operations in Chicago, absolutely,” Homan said.

    In an interview with Fox News, Homan was asked whether he wanted to give a message to Johnson. Homan responded: “Get out of the way, because we’re going to do it.”

    Johnson had harsh words for Trump during his news conference, accusing the president of “behaving outside the bounds of the constitution” and seeking a federal presence in blue cities as retribution against his political rivals.

    Related: Illinois Democrats condemn Trump’s plans to send national guard to Chicago as ‘unconstitutional’

    “He is reckless and out of control,” Johnson said. “He’s the biggest threat to our democracy that we’ve experienced in the history of our country.”

    In response, the White House insisted the potential flood of federal agents was about “cracking down on crime”.

    NBC News reported that Ice, the border patrol and other agencies will send numerous agents and equipment to Chicago as soon as next week, in an attempt to increase arrests of undocumented immigrants.

    The planned move comes weeks after the president deployed armed soldiers and military vehicles to patrol the streets of Washington DC, claiming, despite all available evidence, that the use of the national guard was necessary to control crime.

    The Trump administration has been working on plans to send the national guard to Chicago, something Johnson and JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, have said would be an abuse of power.

    On Friday, Pritzker said such a move would amount to an “invasion”. He told CBS News that, should Trump send in the national guard, voters “should understand that he has other aims, other than fighting crime”.

    Pritzker said those aims may be to “stop the elections in 2026 or, frankly, take control of those elections”.

    Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    “If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the president, their communities would be much safer,” said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. “Cracking down on crime should not be a partisan issue, but Democrats suffering from TDS are trying to make it one. They should listen to fellow Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser who recently celebrated the Trump Administration’s success in driving down violent crime in Washington DC.”

    Reuters and Associated Press contributed reporting

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  • Chicago mayor says police will not aid federal troops or agents

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    By Susan Heavey

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Chicago police will not collaborate with any National Guard troops or federal agents if U.S. President Donald Trump deploys them to the city in coming days as threatened, Mayor Brandon Johnson said on Sunday.

    Johnson, surrounded by other city leaders, signed an executive order aimed at preparing Chicago for any U.S. enforcement operation as Trump has done in Los Angeles and Washington, and urged the Republican president to reverse course.

    “This is about making sure that we are prepared,” he told reporters as he signed the order, adding that the order aimed to offer “real, clear guidance” to city government workers and “all the Chicagoans of how we can stand up against this tyranny.”

    Johnson, a Democrat, said the executive action affirms that Chicago police officers will not collaborate with U.S. military personnel on police patrols or immigration enforcement.

    It also directs them to wear their official police uniforms and not to wear masks to clearly distinguish themselves from any federal operations, he added.

    Trump has been threatening to expand his federal crackdown on Democrat-led U.S. cities to Chicago, casting the use of presidential power as an urgent effort to tackle crime even as city officials cite declines in homicides, gun violence and burglaries.

    Local officials and residents in Chicago, the nation’s third largest city, have been preparing for the possible arrival of federal agents and troops, and Johnson said they have received credible reports that action could come within days.

    The White House dismissed Johnson’s move and accused Democrats of trying to make tackling crime a partisan issue.

    “If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the President, their communities would be much safer,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

    While it is unclear how much state and local officials can do to push back against any U.S. deployment, the mayor said he was pursuing any legal measure available, including possible lawsuits.

    “We will use the courts if that’s necessary,” Johnson said.

    Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly said he wants to be asked for federal agents to be deployed to various cities even as he continues to threaten to send them anyway without any formal request.

    Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat whose name has also been floated as a possible 2028 presidential candidate, has said the president lacks the legal authority to deploy troops to his state if not requested by the governor.

    That differs from Washington, a federal city whose police department Trump took over.

    Previous deployments of the National Guard to Chicago were coordinated with local officials. A president’s power to send in troops is limited under U.S. law, but there are no restrictions on the deployment of federal law enforcement officers such as ICE agents.

    (Reporting by Susan Heavey and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Richard Chang)

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  • Bowser says federal surge in DC is helping combat crime, but causing anxiety for some residents – WTOP News

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    President Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge is helping combat crime in D.C., but causing fear and anxiety in some communities, Mayor Muriel Bowser said.

    Members of the West Virginia National Guard patrol on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)(AP/Mariam Zuhaib)

    President Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge is helping combat crime in D.C., but causing fear and anxiety in some communities, Mayor Muriel Bowser said during a news conference Wednesday.

    In the weeks since the federal assistance started, the city has reported fewer gun crimes, fewer homicides and an “extreme reduction in carjackings,” Bowser said.

    The mayor’s comments come as the surge of officers and National Guard troops approaches the end of its third week. She met with Trump on Wednesday for what she characterized as a “courtesy meeting” and also had conversations with Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

    “We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city,” Bowser said.

    During the hourlong briefing with reporters, Bowser said D.C. police need about 500 more officers to reach the 4,000 figure that city leaders think is necessary for staffing. Between Aug. 7 and Aug. 26, there were four carjackings, compared to 31 during the same period last year, an 87% reduction, according to city data. There was a 47% drop in burglaries and 38% drop in homicides.

    City Administrator Kevin Donahue, citing “fairly precipitous declines” in robbery, carjacking and overall violent crime, said the way to consider the data is by “recognizing we already had good momentum coming into the federal surge, and it made it better.”

    City leaders said crime has been at a 30-year low, a claim Trump has described as inaccurate. Bowser previously told WTOP the Department of Justice reviews D.C. crime data.

    While Bowser said the law enforcement surge is helping, she criticized National Guard troops on city streets and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in masks as things that are “not working.” Many people are still calling police for emergencies, though Bowser said the city doesn’t have data on who isn’t calling.

    Eighty-one percent of Americans see crime as a “major problem,” according to a survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Fifty-five percent of adults think it’s either “completely” or “somewhat” unacceptable for the federal government to take control of local police departments.

    Police Chief Pamela Smith said D.C. police officers are still doing community outreach, but “clearly there is some hesitation, obviously, with some of our community members, which is very important to me, that my team, myself, that we are educating our communities on the relationships that we have with our federal partners.”

    Trump’s invocation of the Home Rule Act is scheduled to end after 30 days, and he would need congressional approval to extend it. However, it’s unclear whether the additional federal law enforcement officers and National Guard troops will remain.

    “We will be prepared to take advantage of additional federal officers, to focus on the beautification, to support the federal task force, when that time period expires,” Bowser said. “We will be prepared as a city.”

    Last week, Bowser said she launched an emergency operation center to help respond to emergent situations and “support federal surge or any federal task force activities beyond the emergency.” She’s planning to issue a mayor’s order to describe how the operations center will continue to engage with the federal Clean, Safe and Beautiful task force and make sure “task force resources continue to be strategically deployed in the District.”

    Several D.C. Council members were highly critical of Bowser’s comments. Ward 5 Council member Zachary Parker said city leaders “should be unequivocal that the federal surge of officers in D.C. and deployment of national guardsmen on our streets are dangerous, unnecessary, and an affront to Home Rule. We ought to be real clear about that. Real clear.”

    Ward 1 Council member Brianne Nadeau said residents are “angry that our limited autonomy is being eroded. There’s nothing welcome about this.”

    Meanwhile, Bowser said since the start of the law enforcement surge, 81 residents have entered the city’s shelter system. The city doesn’t know where they are coming from, Bowser said. They’re planning a census count Thursday.

    “There’s no names collected,” Donahue, the city administrator said. “It is really just individuals identifying those who are unsheltered or homeless on a particular given night.”

    As a result of extra law enforcement, Bowser said there’s “tremendous anxiety in the District. When I look and I see residents putting things on social media or neighborhood chats, I know that there is a lot of anxiety.”

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    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Scott Gelman

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  • Immigration raid in New Jersey results in dozens of warehouse workers detained

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    Dozens of immigrant workers were detained at a warehouse in New Jersey on Wednesday, in the latest federal raid as part of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

    Agents from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) descended on the warehouse, in Edison, New Jersey, at 9am on Wednesday, the New York Times reported. Officers led some workers away in zip ties, employees told the Times, while people they deemed to have legal status in the US were given yellow wristbands.

    Univision reported that the agents spent hours at the facility, during what CBP said was a “surprise inspection”. CBP told Univision the operation had begun as part of “routine efforts” to verify customs, employment and safety regulations.

    Related: Community rallies around LA teen detained by Ice while walking dog

    CBP did not immediately respond to questions from the Guardian.

    Videos taken by New Labor, a New Jersey-based labor and immigration reform organization, showed CBP vehicles at the site, along with unmarked SUVs. New Labor said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents were also at the raid.

    “We have customs and border patrol holding the door open for their Ice counterparts to say they’re allowed in with us, and then they start doing immigration-related actions,” Amanda Dominguez, an organizer at New Labor, told News 12 New York.

    “That is illegal. Ice still needs their own judicial warrant signed by a judge.”

    Relatives of the workers gathered at the facility throughout the day, the Times reported, waiting for news about people inside.

    “People were very upset and crying and angry, completely understandably,” said Ellen Whit, who works at Deportation & Immigrant Response Equipo (Dire), a New Jersey hotline that responds to calls about raids and from relatives of immigrants who have been detained, told the Times. “One girl’s father was taken. She was very, very upset.”

    Workers described a chaotic scene as federal agents arrived. About 20 agents entered through the front door of the warehouse, witnesses told the Times, while other agents blocked alternative exits. Some people were injured amid the chaos, while others hid in the rafters of the warehouse for hours in an attempt to avoid the officers.

    The raid comes weeks after 20 people were taken into custody by Ice at the Alba Wine and Spirits warehouse in Edison. Activists told Fox 5 NY that masked Ice agents arrived that the warehouse in 30 cars, with K-9 dogs.

    Phil Murphy, the Democratic governor of New Jersey, said after the Alba raid, according to NJ Spotlight News: “We don’t stand in the way of federal authorities doing their work and [we are] cooperating with them all the time. But beyond that, I have no insight into the Edison situation.”

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  • Audio: Vivek Ramaswamy Says He Wants ‘the Truth About 9/11’

    Audio: Vivek Ramaswamy Says He Wants ‘the Truth About 9/11’

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    This summer, I set out to write about Vivek Ramaswamy because I thought that his public-speaking skills set him apart from his GOP presidential rivals. Whereas most candidates were struggling to find their lane, Ramaswamy knew exactly what he was offering: a message that seemed to be libertarian at its core, paired with views that were consistent with more extreme corners of the right. Ramaswamy’s team agreed to participate in the profile.

    Ramaswamy let me shadow him over the course of three days at the end of July. I visited his Ohio campaign headquarters and got a behind-the-scenes view of several of his media appearances. He brought me to his home and introduced me to his family. I flew aboard a private jet with him and rode on his campaign bus in Iowa.

    Read: Vivek Ramaswamy’s truth

    Over the three days, Ramaswamy and I had regular conversations—sometimes in short bursts, other times in longer sit-down sessions. Last night, in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, he used the phrase free-flowing to describe our interactions. Our discussions were often challenging, but they were always respectful. With Ramaswamy’s permission, and in keeping with standard journalistic practice, I recorded all of our interviews.

    During our final interview aboard his campaign bus, I brought up one of his more explosive claims—a suggestion that we don’t know “the truth” about January 6. I asked him: What is the truth about January 6 that you’re referring to? His answer went down a curious path, invoking the investigation into the 9/11 terrorist attacks, among other topics. At one point, he said this to me: “I think it is legitimate to say, How many police, how many federal agents were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers? Like, I think we want—maybe the answer is zero, probably is zero for all I know, right?”

    Yesterday, after The Atlantic published my story and his comments about 9/11 and January 6 drew attention, Ramaswamy told Semafor that the quote we published wasn’t “exactly what I said.” Last night, asked by CNN’s Collins about the same quote, Ramaswamy said, “I’m telling you the quote is wrong, actually.”

    The quote is correct.

    Here is the unedited audio and a transcript of our exchange about 9/11 and January 6.

    John Hendrickson: When you talk about all the things, We can handle the truth about X, you know, and you list off a bunch of stuff—one of them that you said last night is: We can handle the truth about January 6. What is the truth about January 6 that you’re referring to?

    Vivek Ramaswamy: I don’t know, but we can handle it. Whatever it is, we can handle it. Government agents. How many government agents were in the field? Right?

    Hendrickson: You mean like entrapment?

    Ramaswamy: Yeah. Absolutely. Why can the government not be transparent about something that we’re using? Terrorists, or the kind of tactics used to fight terrorists. If we find that there are hundreds of our own in the ranks on the day that they were, that they were—I mean, look …

    Hendrickson: Well, there’s a difference between entrapment and a difference between a law-enforcement agent identifying—

    Ramaswamy: I think it is legitimate to say, How many police, how many federal agents were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers? Like, I think we want—maybe the answer is zero, probably is zero for all I know, right? I have no reason to think it was anything other than zero. But if we’re doing a comprehensive assessment of what happened on 9/11, we have a 9/11 commission, absolutely that should be an answer the public knows the answer to.

    Well, if we’re doing a January 6 commission, absolutely, those should be questions that we should get to the bottom of. And there can’t be hush-hush, separate, it shouldn’t be outside the commission, leaked to some media personality the hours of footage. No, this is transparent. These are the doors that were open. Here are the people that opened the doors, to whom? Here are the people who were armed. Here are the people who were unarmed. What percentage of the people who were armed were federal law-enforcement officers? I think it was probably high, actually. Right? There’s very little evidence of people being arrested for being armed that day. Most of the people who were armed, I assume the federal officers who were out there were armed. And so, I don’t know the answers. We deserve to know the answers, right?

    We did a Jan. 6 commission. There are certain questions you can ask. We did a 9/11 commission, and if there are federal agents on the plane we deserve to know. And if we’re doing a Jan. 6 commission and there are federal officers in the field, we deserve to know. Just tell us the truth. Tell us what happened.

    Read: A bouncy, fresh brand of Trumpism

    And it’s not just that, right? I think it’s also the reflective, the reflection on the truth about the underlying motivations of people. What were the sources of the frustration? Right? Is it really just, Donald Trump riled them up in an eight-week period? Or are these people who have been lied to and suppressed for a longer period of time? I think it’s clearly the latter, right? And I think that the failure to recognize the whole truth—we want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That’s, that’s really, when I say we deserve—and I don’t think we’ve gotten it on any of those questions. On the Jeffrey Epstein client list, on unidentified flying objects, on January 6, on vaccine—on COVID-19 vaccine—on the origin of the pandemic, which we now know, by the way, systematic efforts by people who had no idea what the origin was to shoot down the origin. And I remember this at the time there were people in sort of the, uh, like, in the sort of the greater Harvard/MIT space, the Broad Institute and otherwise, who were sort of talking about, Well, there’s a decent chance it could have, but we should be careful about talking about this or It could undermine, erosion of trust in science. There’s no such thing as a noble lie. That’s my view. The noble lie is nonexistent. No lie is noble.

    Hendrickson: I think it’s interesting to compare and contrast 9/11 and January 6.

    Ramaswamy: Oh, yeah. I don’t think they belong in the same conversation. I’m only bringing it up because it was … I am not making the comparison. I think it’s a ridiculous comparison—

    Hendrickson: I’m not comparing—

    Ramaswamy: But I’m saying that I brought it up only because it was invoked as a basis for the Jan. 6 commission.

    Hendrickson: Of course. What I’m saying, though, is that I think Democrats and Republicans would agree that 9/11 is a day that’s like Pearl Harbor day, where there are good guys and bad guys and America was attacked. I mean, I think that’s very clear—

    Ramaswamy: I mean, I would take the truth about 9/11. I mean, I am not questioning what we—this is not something I’m staking anything out on. But I want the truth about 9/11.

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    John Hendrickson

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