Trump’s Hostile D.C. Takeover

President Trump’s strongman act is on full display in the nation’s capitol.

In a move straight out of the authoritarian handbook, Trump this week declared a crime emergency in Washington, D.C. and took federal control of the city’s police force and deploying National Guard troops into its streets. This federalization of the nation’s capitol is another attempt by the president to project an image of strength and resilience in the face of opposition — and to show what he is willing to do to punish his perceived adversaries.

In targeting D.C., Trump has spewed lies about the city’s history, population, and safety, many of which are based on and perpetuate racist rhetoric and narratives about the city’s large Black population.
That same rhetoric has been used to disenfranchise D.C.’s citizens for decades, and was used as a basis for the city’s lack of representation in Congress in the late 19th century.
Despite Trump’s claims of lawlessness and chaos in D.C., data from both the F.B.I and Metropolitan Police Department shows the city’s crime rate is currently at its lowest in nearly 30 years.

Trump has named specific and vulnerable targets in his takeover of the nation’s capitol; unhoused people and juveniles suspected of being members of “violent gangs” are at the top of his arrest priority list.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that unhoused people who refuse to leave D.C. “will be subjected to fines or jail time,” but advocates have pointed out that there is limited bed space in area shelters.
“This is not about preventing crime, it’s about political theater and federal control,” Clinique Chapman, the chief executive of D.C. Justice Lab, told the New York Times. “Young Black boys will bear the brunt of this, as they are the most likely to be stopped, to be questioned, to just really encounter the police interactions.”

We’re investigating Trump’s brazen efforts to seize control of Democratic power centers. Immediately following his federalization of D.C., we submitted a suite of public records requests to the departments of justice and the interior, as well as to the National Parks Service, the D.C. Mayor’s Office, and the D.C. City Council, for information that could help determine whether the administration’s public-safety rationale is a cover for a broader political effort to strip power from D.C.’s locally elected leaders.

D.C. residents have the right to elect their own mayor and council, but Congress retains power to override local governance.
Trump’s comments and the task force’s sweeping mandate raise concerns that the president could wield that authority to permanently revoke local control.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called Trump’s actions an “authoritarian push” and an “intrusion on our autonomy.”

This isn’t the first time we’ve witnessed Trump’s willingness to deploy military personnel on American soil to advance his political agenda and suppress opposition — and it seems like it won’t be the last.

On Monday, Trump vowed, “This will go further,” threatening to extend similar federal crackdowns to New York City, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago, and Oakland — all cities led by Black Democratic mayors.
In June, Trump authorized the deployment of National Guard and Marine troops to quash protests in Los Angeles, despite local and state officials’ objections — a stunning abuse of power that flies in the face of Americans’ right to free speech.
The administration also dispatched thousands of military troops to the southern border in another political stuntearlier this year.
And new reporting suggests that the Trump administration is now evaluating plans to establish a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force” of National Guard troops to be deployed into U.S. cities to quash protests or other civil unrest. Such an endeavor could cost hundreds of millions of dollars and poses a serious threat to Americans’ constitutional rights to free speech and assembly.
Read more here about our investigation into Trump’s weaponization of the military to quash protests and silence dissent.

Congress Must Investigate IRS Commissioner Billy Long’s Ousting

Trump ousted IRS Commissioner Billy Long last weekend, after he reportedly raised concerns about the agency’s data-sharing agreement with ICE. We’re calling on Congress to immediately investigate Long’s removal.

Long, a former Republican congressman from Missouri, was hand-picked for the role by Trump, but was removed after just two months, following a reported dispute with the administration over its use of IRS records for immigration enforcement.
According to the Washington Post, last week the Department of Homeland Security sent the IRS a request for personal tax information about 40,000 individuals. The IRS refused to provide most of the information, citing privacy laws. Long was removed soon afterward.

“Removing the head of the IRS for refusing to violate this already controversial agreement is as alarming as it is telling,” American Oversight’s executive director Chioma Chukwu said. “That the Trump administration reportedly sought to weaponize confidential taxpayer information to advance its nativist and anti-immigrant agenda — and, when Commissioner Long appeared to stand in the way, pushed him out after only two months on the job — should alarm all Americans.”

“If this kind of abuse goes unanswered, it will embolden the administration to further trample privacy protections for immigrants and citizens alike,” Chukwu added.
We previously uncovered details of a data-sharing agreement between ICE and the IRS that showed ICE was seeking IRS records containing the addresses and other personal information of people it was investigating.
The government repeatedly attempted in federal court to keep the details of the agreement hidden. Our successful efforts to lift the redactions revealed the government’s apparent expectation that it could use the law-enforcement privilege to shield the records without proper justification or reason.

On the Records: Texas and ICE are Coordinating Immigration Detention Spaces in the State

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office has been coordinating with federal immigration authorities to prop up detention spaces in the state, emails show — another indication of states’ willingness to bend to President Trump’s extreme goals of mass arresting, detaining, and deporting immigrants.

Texas could become the most recent state to announce it will prop up new detention facilities in support of Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, following similar moves by Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, and others.
Emails show that Abbott’s Chief of Staff Robert Black asked top Trump administration officials working in immigration enforcement about possible detention spaces in Texas in February.
“Attached is the list of facilities we visited about,” Black wrote. “Workforce will be a challenge but that can be contracted. … “I would recommend we set up a conference call to see if we can hammer out an agreement if you want to proceed.” The suggested facilities were redacted in the version of the email we obtained.

Other emails include references to a meeting about detention space that was held that same month between Abbott’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Angela Colmenero, and officials at ICE, DHS, and the National Security Council.

“It was a pleasure speaking with you and Trevor this morning,” an NSC official wrote to Colmenero on February 13. (Colmenero noted that the director of the state’s prison system also joined the meeting.)
“We sincerely appreciate your support for the administration’s agenda of expanding our detention portfolio nationwide,” the official continued. “We need to iron out some significant details regarding terms of use, length, cost, and any other facility or structural requirements needed.”

ICE recently announced that it plans to convert a Texas military base, Fort Bliss, into a detention facility to hold thousands of detainees.

The $1.2 billion site — which is still under development — will begin detaining individuals on August 17. As planned, it will be the largest federal immigration detention space in U.S. history.
Legal battles over other recently-opened detention facilities are ongoing. Last week, a judge ordered a 14-day halt of construction at the Florida Everglades detention space, citing environmental concerns.
That order doesn't include any restrictions on law enforcement or immigration enforcement activity, though, and detained individuals are still being held in the swampy space, where conditions include sweltering heat, abrupt air conditioning cut-offs, and bugs in the food.
We’ve been investigating abusive detention space conditions and the private prison industry’s ties to Trump’s mass detention and deportation goals. Read more here.

Congress Must Investigate IRS Commissioner Billy Long’s Ousting

On the Records: Texas and ICE are Coordinating Immigration Detention Spaces in the State

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