Trump launches task force to make DC ‘safe and beautiful,’ focusing on deportations, crime, homelessness
President Trump signed an executive order Thursday with the goal of improving Washington's cleanliness and safety, focusing on deporting migrants in the nation’s capital and cleaning up crime and homelessness.
The order launches a task force “to ensure effective federal participation” in the enforcement of immigration laws and redirecting resources to apprehend and deport migrants in Washington and to monitor its sanctuary-city status to comply with federal immigration laws.
The task force will also assist in completing the accreditation of Washington's forensic crime lab, assist with recruiting police officers, help to “increase the speed and lower the cost of processing concealed carry license requests,” and revise policies on “pretrial detention of criminal defendants” so dangerous individuals are detained.
Additionally, the order directs Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to remove and clean up all homeless encampments on federal land.
The task force will include representatives from the Interior, as well as the departments of Transportation and Homeland Security, the FBI, Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
It will also coordinate with local officials from D.C., the order said, including from the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, and will also include the U.S. attorney’s office for Maryland and the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The task force can also request assistance and coordinate with the Metropolitan Police Department, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, United States Park Police, and the Amtrak Police, the order said.
The order directs the task force to help with ending fare evasion on the D.C. metro, deploy a “more robust” law enforcement presence in D.C. in places like the National Mall and museums, “develop and implement a program to beautify and make safe,” work to restore public monuments and memorials, and work to remove graffiti.
“As the Federal capital city, Washington, D.C., is the only city that belongs to all Americans and that all Americans can claim as theirs. As the capital city of the greatest Nation in the history of the world, it should showcase beautiful, clean, and safe public spaces,” the order said.
The order says that Washington should feel safe, including on public transit, as well as be “clean, well-kept, and pleasant.” It also declares it is U.S. policy to make D.C. “safe, beautiful, and prosperous by preventing crime, punishing criminals, preserving order, protecting our revered American monuments, and promoting beautification and the preservation of our history and heritage.”
Trump suggested earlier this month that the federal government could take over D.C. if local officials “can’t do the job,” and he said he wants to make the nation’s capital “the talk of the world.”