Trump wins a battle in Washington: DC no longer wants to define itself as a ‘sanctuary city’

The threats made by Donald Trump and a Congress subservient to his wishes are affecting the nation’s capital as a city that welcomes migrants regardless of their status. District of Columbia authorities no longer want Washington to be defined as a “sanctuary city” that does not cooperate with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in detaining undocumented immigrants for deportation. Evidence of this is the fact that the DC government website has removed a webpage where Mayor Muriel Bowser had reaffirmed DC’s sanctuary city status.

In a since-deleted statement, dated November 2016, after Trump won his first election, Bowser maintained: “The values, laws, and policies of Washington, D.C., did not change on Election Day. We celebrate our diversity and respect all D.C. residents regardless of immigration status. We are a sanctuary city because we know our neighborhoods are safer and stronger when no one is afraid to ask the government for help.”

In 2019, in a message on Twitter (now X), she reiterated that Washington, DC, remained a proud sanctuary city, committed to protecting the rights of all immigrant families in the face of troubling threats. The mayor then promised that she would redouble efforts to officially make DC a sanctuary city, which she achieved with the passage of a law in 2020.

This time, the U.S. president is the same, but the mayor’s rhetoric has changed. Last month, at a press conference, Bowser admitted that she no longer uses the term “sanctuary city” to define DC because “it’s misleading to suggest to anyone that if you’re violating immigration laws, that this is a place where you can violate immigration laws. You are vulnerable to federal immigration enforcement.”

Bowser’s shift appears to be driven by the pressure Trump has exerted on the district, which he has repeatedly stated he wants to take control of. Furthermore, at stake is the budget cut being approved in Congress, which would reduce DC’s allocation by $1 billion.

“The federal government’s attacks have already occurred. The reality is that the mayor is being very smart by not challenging the administration and trying to work with them as best she can without affecting the services this city can provide or the authority it currently has,” said Abel Núnez, president of CARECEN (Central American Resource Center), an organization that helps migrants integrate into society, speaking from Washington.

Nuñez says his organization has already felt the effects of the federal spending cuts ordered by Trump and driven by the now powerful head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk. “Not only are they attacking vulnerable communities, like immigrants and poor people, but they are also attacking organizations that work to serve communities and ensure they can participate in the life of the city,” says Nuñez, who admits that “we are also adopting a non-confrontational language with this Administration. We have lost funding from the federal government, and we want to ensure that CARECEN will survive.”

The controversial term “sanctuary” is another word the government wants to delete from public administration vocabulary. This month, The New York Times published a long list of terms agencies have been told they should avoid, including “racism,” “Hispanic minority,” “social justice,” and “vulnerable populations.”

Several states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Washington, as well as more than 100 other jurisdictions, are considered sanctuaries. These include the cities of Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, which have laws prohibiting the use of local resources, such as transportation or personnel, to enforce federal immigration regulations. The Democratic mayors of four of the largest U.S. cities—Chicago, Denver, Boston and New York—defended their sanctuary city policies in Congress last week, denying that this poses a security risk as Republicans claim.

Trump, unhappy with the pace of deportations of undocumented immigrants, which is going slower than he expected, has lashed out at sanctuary cities, warning that he will cut off their federal funding if they don’t cooperate with arrests. The Department of Justice has sued New York and Chicago for interfering with his anti-immigration campaign.

For ICE, the easiest way to carry out deportations is to go to local jails and take undocumented immigrants detained for other crimes, mostly minor offenses such as traffic violations. However, this requires the cooperation of local authorities, which is not allowed in sanctuary cities.

The administration’s pressure against them has been ongoing since Trump won the election. Bowser was one of the elected officials who, days before Trump’s inauguration, received a letter from America First Legal, led by Stephen Miller, one of his policy and security advisers, warning that they would face legal consequences for interfering with or impeding the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Bowser, who is serving her third term as city mayor, has shown signs of softening her confrontational attitude towards Trump. Most recently, she bowed to Trump’s wishes by ordering the removal of a mural from Black Lives Matter Plaza, very near the White House, after Republicans in Congress threatened to withhold funding for the district if it remained in place. Bowser led the push to build Black Lives Matter Plaza in 2020 after federal agents fired tear gas at protesters following the killing of George Floyd. When asked why she had bowed to pressure, Bowser responded that she had “bigger fish to catch.”

At stake is the government's budget, which the Republican-led Congress controls. Such cuts could effectively eliminate programs that benefit immigrants, such as education and healthcare, regardless of their immigration status, in addition to slashing the security budget.

The District of Columbia was established in 1790 to serve as the nation's capital from lands formerly belonging to the states of Virginia and Maryland. Unlike the states, it has no representative in the Senate, and its delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, does not have a vote in the House of Representatives.

DC’s vulnerability has prompted proposals like that put forward by U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin, who represents the Maryland suburbs of DC, who suggested a return to the past on the City Cast DC podcast. “If you want to think about coming back to Maryland for this period this time, you’ll definitely be safer in the Free State than under the brutal thumb of MAGA colonialism,” he said. According to Axios, a majority of Maryland residents oppose DC’s incorporation into their state. In any case, it’s an unlikely option because it would have to be approved by Congress.

Meanwhile, Bowser is seeking a balance to avoid losing her authority or her budget. “The sanctuary name isn't really what matters. What matters is that the funds are there to support the community. For some people, it does, because it sends a message, but I don't think a message at this point is appropriate,” Nuñez admits.

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