President Trump’s decision to send the National Guard into Washington, D.C., in order to fix the city’s rampant crime problem, is “overdue,” Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said Monday.
“I'm not just a federal employee, but I'm also a resident of the District. And so on both counts, I'm really thrilled that the president is taking action to protect all of the citizens who live here, all the workers who live here. This is a crisis that's overdue. And I'm grateful to the president for prioritizing safety here in the nation's capital,” Dhillon said.
Trump announced Monday a plan to “take back” America’s capital city and restore law and order. The Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department will now be under Attorney General Pam Bondi. Home Rule has also been invoked.
“The murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogotá, Colombia," Trump said during the announcement. "The number of car thefts has doubled over the past five years, and the number of carjackings has more than tripled."
🔥President Trump announces that he's federalizing the D.C. metro police and deploying the National Guard to secure the city:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 11, 2025
"I'm announcing a historic action to rescue our Nation's Capitol from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse." pic.twitter.com/BSCCVUXqC4
Dhillon noted that the federal government can use its “purse strings” in order to coerce other blue cities to change their ways on crime. But enforcing civil rights laws is necessary as well.
“The DOJ has opened up investigations into what's happening in some of these sanctuary cities," Dhillon noted. "And looking at the coordination, you see at times law enforcement officials and political officials in some of these cities actually warning people who are here illegally. I saw that when I was living in California, in the next-door city of Oakland, where the mayor took to the airwaves, to radio, to warn illegal aliens that there was an ICE raid coming. This is shocking and outrageous behavior by public officials that undermines our public trust and undermines our borders and our national safety.
“But, you know, we send billions and billions of dollars to each of these states, particularly the blue states, the big population blue states, and we don't really enforce our federal civil rights laws when we do that. If we were to start premising and predicating federal funding, which is something that, you know, is something that could definitely be done on some certain minimum standards of safety and respect for our borders, I think that might be a great thing. But that's, of course, a policy matter that the White House is considering," Dhillon stated regarding the administration’s idea to potentially bring police departments of other blue cities under federal control.
Editor’s Note: President Donald Trump is returning Washington D.C. to the American people by locking up violent criminals and restoring order.
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