DOJ removes D.C. emergency police chief, agrees to rewrite immigration directive Jacob Rosen August 16, 2025 at 12:31 AM / Getty Images After a hearing in the D.C. U.S. District Court Friday, the Justice Department agreed to remove its newly named D.C.
- - DOJ removes D.C. emergency police chief, agrees to rewrite immigration directive
Jacob Rosen August 16, 2025 at 12:31 AM
/ Getty Images
After a hearing in the D.C. U.S. District Court Friday, the Justice Department agreed to remove its newly named D.C. emergency police chief and to rewrite a directive ending District of Columbia rules limiting cooperation between its police and federal immigration authorities.
The District of Columbia sued the Trump administration and Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier in the day. D.C. alleges her efforts to scuttle the District's "sanctuary" rules curbing local police cooperation with immigration authorities during the federal police takeover are illegal.
Late Thursday night, Bondi named Terry Cole, the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, emergency police chief in Washington, as part of her sweeping orders to increase federal control over the Metropolitan Police Department.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes heard Friday's arguments in the case, which is centered around Section 740 of the Home Rule Act of 1973. That provision allows the president to require the D.C. mayor to provide "such services of the Metropolitan Police force as the President may deem necessary and appropriate" for up to 30 days. President Trump invoked Section 740 Monday, placing the D.C. MPD under direct federal control to crack down on crime in the district.
"I think these are the kinds of issues that should be decided between the district and the government," Reyes said. "If I have to step in, I will."
Now, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith will continue leading the department, according to Yaakov Roth, principal deputy attorney general in the Justice Department. At the end of the hearing, Roth said the Justice Department would make Cole an intermediary between the White House and MPD during the Trump administration's takeover of the city's police. For now, the federal takeover is expected to last 30 days.
Both sides agreed to continue the arguments over immigration policy next week, after the new policies are written.
On Thursday night, Bondi, whose department is overseeing the 30-day federalization, announced an order terminating some of the "sanctuary" immigration policies in the nation's capital.
Under her order, the MPD would temporarily fully cooperate with federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other immigration authorities.
Bondi also rescinded guidance issued by D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith just this week that allowed police officers to transport ICE agents and their detainees and to share immigration information during traffic stops. Smith's directive had still barred most local involvement in federal immigration enforcement.
Bondi also removed guidance that prohibited D.C. police officers from searching databases to determine a person's immigration status, even when there's no underlying criminal warrant.
She also suspended District rules that barred local police from arresting individuals based on administrative immigration warrants signed by ICE officials — not judges — and from assisting federal agents during such arrests. The now-defunct policy had required officers to have a criminal nexus before carrying out an arrest and prohibited arrests solely based on suspected civil immigration law violations.
Mitchell Reich, an attorney for the D.C. attorney general's office, asked Judge Reyes to block the Trump administration from taking full operational control of MPD and to block Bondi's orders revoking the D.C. police department's non-cooperation with ICE and other federal immigration agencies.
Reyes said that the Home Rule Act does require D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to follow White House directives, but the administration cannot fully control every MPD move.
"The statute would have no meaning at all if the president could just say, 'we're taking over your police department,'" Reyes said. "The president can't say, 'Mayor, I'm asking for the services of your entire police department. I need them to be at my beck and call.'"
Reyes said while the Trump administration can make specific requests of the MPD to do something, it cannot tell MPD not to do something.
"If the president today called the mayor… and said, 'I need the services of the MPD to help ICE,' I don't think she could say no," Reyes said. "The statute says the mayor shall, not the mayor can."
The judge also expressed skepticism about Bondi's appointment of Cole. Reyes, appointed to the bench by Joe Biden, has at times criticized the Trump administration's actions in its cases before her.
Roth argued that the language in the Home Rule Act is "broad" and allows for the White House takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department without judicial review.
In D.C.'s complaint, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb warned that the Trump administration's "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."
While Mr. Trump has raised the possibility of expanding his administration's control of the city's law enforcement beyond the 30-day maximum without congressional approval, Roth said his interpretation of the law was that the federalization would end without intervention from Congress.
"That's why we want this to be successful," Roth said. "We want this to work well."
"I totally agree that everyone wants this to be successful," Reyes replied. "And my job as I see it is to make sure that it is successful and within constitutional bounds."
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