One week into President Donald Trump’s historic move to federalize D.C.’s police and deploy the National Guard across the city, Foggy Bottom leaders lambaste the move as unlawful as advocates scramble to relocate homeless residents amid escalating citywide arrests and encampment sweeps.
Trump invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act for the first time in history last Monday, federalizing the Metropolitan Police Department under a declared “crime emergency” — a move that has led local and federal law enforcement to make more than 300 arrests as of Sunday evening. Federal law enforcement presence in Foggy Bottom has remained sparse, with around 800 National Guard troops concentrated in D.C.’s tourist and nightlife hubs, but neighborhood leaders are decrying their city’s takeover as retaliatory and unprecedented.
While Foggy Bottom has largely escaped federal scrutiny as troops focus on areas like the nearby National Mall and the U Street corridor, federal and local officials have cleared at least four homeless encampment sites near campus in Washington Circle and L Street. The sweeps displaced at least four unhoused individuals and removed at least seven tents, bypassing the city’s usual protocol of providing a seven-day notice before clearing encampments.
D.C. Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Behavioral Health officials urged unhoused individuals living in Foggy Bottom near the Kennedy Center, the E Street Expressway and Virginia Avenue to move their tents on Wednesday and Thursday, Street Sense reported. District officials cleared another encampment with seven tents near the I-66 ramp earlier in the day Thursday.
Tameyah Ingraham, an outreach worker for homeless aid organization Miriam’s Kitchen, said she went to three encampments on Thursday, encouraging residents to relocate to shelters to avoid arrest by federal officials and helping residents gather their belongings. She said some of the organization’s donors have also helped finance residents staying in a hotel.
“We are here to soften the blow and try to encourage them to relocate, so that they won’t go to jail,” Ingraham said.
Ingraham said Miriam’s Kitchen did not know how many encampments the federal government planned to clear or when.
“It’s just been popping up everywhere,” Ingraham said.
Rachel Pierre — the director of DMHHS, which oversees the city’s homeless services — said the agency has the capacity to assist people law enforcement evicts from encampments. She said the federal government led the evictions, and DMHHS was only there to support unhoused residents and ensure they knew their options for relocation.
“Our job is to make sure that people know if they want to come in, they can come in,” Pierre told The Hatchet. “We have the capacity to meet the needs of anybody, and that’s what we’re giving the word out to make sure people know.”
Backlash against Trump’s takeover from residents across the District has mounted on social media, in news reports and through protests — which culminated Saturday when hundreds marched from Dupont Circle to the White House — arguing the move breaches democratic principles and citing D.C. crime’s historic low in 2024.
Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto, who represents GW’s Foggy Bottom Campus, on Monday posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, a statement released by the D.C. Council calling Trump’s actions a “manufactured intrusion” on local authority and asserting that MPD is capable of handling crime in the District without federal intervention.
“The work continues to ensure safety is a reality for all, but that work is not accomplished by federal intervention in our local police department or dispatching hundreds of federal troops into our streets,” Pinto said in the post.
Pinto said in another post that all residents in the District have the right to live indoors, and the work of combating homelessness should be left to local officials and case workers, rather than federal agents.
“We must continue to do more to get people in housing, but we are not going to accomplish this through federal sweeps in the dark of night,” Pinto said in the post.
By Thursday evening, District agencies had “surged” shelter capacity, said National Homelessness Law Center Campaign and Communications Director Jesse Rabinowitz. He said the reason many people were living outside is because shelters didn’t work for them, so forcing residents to go to shelter or face arrest “isn’t really a good option.”
A shelter census from Tuesday night showed there were just 13 beds available in shelters for men and nine for women. As of Thursday, the city made at least 70 additional shelter beds available since Monday, according to Street Sense Media.
“D.C. did surge shelter capacity — about maybe 200 beds, which is good, but the shelters are far away,” he said. “People don’t like them, people are living outside because the shelters don’t work for them.”
Rabinowitz said advocates believed the administration’s goal was to sweep as many as 25 encampments Thursday night, an unprecedented pace. He said while the District has ramped up encampment clearings since Trump took office, the threat of arrest since Trump asserted control over D.C. has residents “angry” and “scared.”
“This is unprecedented,” Rabinowitz said. “The outreach workers are exhausted. I think they’ve been working around the clock, I mean, for years, but especially over the past few days.”
Malec has repeatedly posted on X over the last week to express his disapproval of federal actions. In a Thursday post, Malec said the encampment sweeps were “cruelty for cruelty’s sake.”
“This accomplishes nothing,” Malec said of the sweeps. “The encampments will return. But it does cause pain and suffering to the poorest and most vulnerable members of our community.”
In response to MPD Chief Pamela Smith agreeing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, Malec posted that the move was an “absolute failure” of leadership.
“We should not be aiding in the establishment of a fascist police district, whether or not we think it’s temporary,” Malec said.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser stepped up her criticism of the administration in a conversation with community leaders Tuesday. She called Trump’s actions an “authoritarian push” and stressed the importance of electing Democratic leaders to prevent similar actions in the future.
“This is a time where community needs to jump in, and we all need to, to do what we can in our space, in our lane, to protect our city and to protect our autonomy, to protect our Home Rule,” Bowser said.
Students and student groups over the last week have also condemned Trump’s federal takeover. The Socialist Action Initiative, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace — all social justice-oriented GW student groups — said in a joint statement Trump used “racist dogwhistles” when referencing crime in the District to justify his takeover. The groups called the administration’s actions an “incursion” on Home Rule and an attack on “popular sovereignty.”
“Make no mistake, this declaration is an open escalation of the existing class war against the Black, migrant, and working communities of D.C.,” the statement reads.
Student Government Association President Ethan Lynne and SGA Vice President Liz Stoddard put out a joint statement Tuesday saying they are “actively confronting” the federal government’s actions. The statement says the SGA is working to understand any ramifications these actions may have on the student body and make students’ voices heard.
“Make no mistake, these actions threaten our community, and we will not sit on the sidelines,” the statement reads.
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