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Residents of Washington, D.C. are getting increasingly fed up with U.S. President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and other federal law enforcement officials in their city.
Zeteo journalist Prem Thakker reported on Tuesday that residents in Columbia Heights jeered and shouted at masked federal agents in their local Metro station who were apparently there to assist transit police in holding train fare evaders accountable.
While at the station, Thakker observed agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) standing around an alleged fare evader alongside the transit police. This led Thakker to ask a police officer on the scene whether it was really the best use of HSI and FBI’s time to have them tackling petty crimes.
“He first said they weren’t [helping enforce anti-fare evasion laws]; it was only the local police who responded,” wrote Thakker. “It was a confusing response, given all the agents we just saw at the scene. We then got into a lengthy back-and-forth… I repeatedly tried to re-focus the conversation on ICE and other federal agencies’ roles. He said he can’t speak to other agencies, while maintaining that they were all supporting each other.”
Thakker then exited the station and saw a large crowd of people chanting at federal agents and telling them to get out of their neighborhood. The agents subsequently got into their unmarked vehicles and drove out of the area, which led to cheers from residents.
One woman who jeered the federal agents explained to Thakker why she opposed having them patrol D.C.’s streets.
“I’ve seen them, purposely, walk up to Latino-Americans that don’t speak proper English and then say to them, ‘You don’t speak English, you’re going with me’ — [they] don’t ask no name, no citizenship, no anything,” she told Thakker. “It’s heartbreaking to see that these people come here to make their life different in America, and it’s being sabotaged.”
Data suggests that opposition to the presence of federal agents in the nation’s capital is widespread. A poll of D.C. residents conducted by The Washington Post found that they “overwhelmingly” oppose Trump’s deployment of National Guard and federal agents in their city.
All told, 79 percent of D.C. residents surveyed said they were opposed to Trump’s actions, compared to only 17 percent who said they were supportive. What’s more, the percentage of residents who said they “strongly oppose” the deployments stood at 69 percent, indicating broad and intense opposition to the president’s initiative.
Mark Rozell, dean of George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, told the Post that it was little surprise that D.C. residents are rebelling against Trump’s attempted takeover of their city’s law enforcement operations.
“A federalized takeover of any aspect of a city’s operations will naturally create a backlash, and that is clearly happening here,” he said. “Residents are saying [crime] is not as bad as the president claims, and they want to reclaim the image of their city against a presidential narrative that is tarnishing D.C.’s reputation.”
Over the weekend, hundreds of D.C. residents took part in “Free D.C.” protests against the Trump takeover, and organizers have pledged to make them at least a weekly occurrence over the next several months.
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