Washington (AP) – The main route in Washington’s district of Columbia Heights is usually pushed together by people who absorb pupusas, fresh fruit, souvenirs and clothing. On Tuesday, however, things felt different: the white tents that expand with food and goods were meager than usual.
“Everything stopped last week,” said Yassin Yahyaoui, who sold jewelry and glass figures. Most of his customers and colleagues, he said, are “just gone” – especially when they speak Spanish.
The unusually placid road was one of many evidence that, like the decision of President Donald Trump, flooded by the city with the country’s capital, the country’s capital with law enforcement and immigration agents. While troops and foot patrols in areas in the city center and the national shopping center have attracted the greatest attention, life in historically different districts such as Columbia Heights is also redesigned.
The White House has attributed Trump’s procedures to hundreds of arrests, while the local officials criticized the aggressive intervention in the city’s affairs.
The confrontation escalated on Tuesday, when the highest public prosecutor opened an investigation in DC, whether police officers felled crime data, according to a person who was familiar with the situation that was not authorized to comment publicly. The probe could be used to strengthen Trump’s claims that the city, despite statistics that show improvements, suffers from a “criminal police”. The mayor’s office and the police refused to comment.
The members of the National Guard from West Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana arrived in Washington on Tuesday to assist with the procedure, according to the Joint Task Force District in Columbia, the military unit that monitors the DC -Wachmann. These troops from other states will perform similar tasks to the members of the DC Guard members who are already on the street, including the protection of landmarks and mass control, and will spend the night in military base and hotels, said JTF-DC.
Stops are observable all over the city
Blocks away from the place where Yahyaoui had set up a shop that the US immigration and customs authority and the local police stopped a moped driver who delivered pizza. The agents did not drive cars and wore tactical vests; You covered your face with a green Balaclava. They questioned the driver and asked him to submit documentation with regard to his employment and legal status. No arrest was made.
The White House stated that there were 465 arrests since August 7, when the Federal Operation began, including 206 people who were illegal in the country. The Trump government has reinforced the enforcement of immigration, and the president signed an executive regulation on August 11 to put the police authority under federal control for 30 days. An extension would require the consent of the congress.
Karoline Leavitt, the press spokesman for the White House, said that Trump was “not apologetically for the security of legislative American citizens”.
Glorida Gomez, who has been working in Columbia Heights for more than a decade, said that business is now worse than during the Covid 19 pandemic. She said many providers had stopped coming because they were afraid to interact with federal agents.
Customers also seem to be less willing to spend money. Reina Sosa, another provider, said, “In the event that something happens” as if they are detained by enforcing immigration.
Ana Lemus, who also sells fruit, said: “We need more humanity on the part of the government.”
“Remember that these are people who are affected,” she said. “The government is supposed to protect members of the community, do not attack or discriminate.”
Spectators have recorded some arrests on video. On Saturday morning, Christian Enrique Carias Torres was captured in another part of the city during a dispute with ice agents and the film material around social media was praised. The affidavit of an FBI agent said Carias Torres had kicked one of the agents in the leg and another was injured when he fell during the fight and hit his head on the sidewalk. A narcotic weapon was used to submit Carias Torres, which was charged on Tuesday for resistance to the arrest.
In the city, an alphabet soup was circulated by federal authorities. In the neighborhood of Petworth, around 20 officials from the FBI, Homeland Security, Park Police and US marshals came in a residential building on Tuesday morning. A man stretched out his hands out of a window while the officers captivated him. The 19 -year -old Yanna Stell, who witnessed the incident, said she heard the chatter from Walkie Talkies when the officers moved through the hallways.
“It was the first to be too many police in the morning – especially for her, to only enact an arrest warrant,” she said.
Further National Guard troops from other countries should arrive
From his actions and comments, Trump seems to be interested in improving the pressure. His government asked the Republican states to send more national guards to a total of 1,100 over the 800 of the DC-based guard. In addition to the states, whose missions arrived on Tuesday, Ohio and Tennessee have also announced that they will send armed forces.
The resistance to this term appears on both the streets and in the congress. On Tuesday, the democratic MP Sam Liccardo from California hired a draft law that would require a report in which the costs of a mission of the national guard that did not have to be related to a natural disaster and the legal basis. It would also be necessary to report on the awake interactions with civilians and other aspects of the operation.
Forty -four Democrats signed to support, including Congressmen Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington’s not entitled to vote in the House of Representatives. While the measure has little chance of passing while the Republicans control the chamber, this is a sign of a wider democratic reaction to Trump’s unprecedented steps in Washington.
“Are LA and DC a test for a broader authoritarian takeover of local communities?” Liccardo asked. He added that the founders of the country were suspicious of “executive control over standing armies”.
Abigail Jackson, a spokeswoman for the White House, said that “Democrats continue to stand by criminals about the laws of the law”.
What support is offered?
It is unclear what kind of assist from the National Guard will be able to do in relation to crimes.
“The fact is that the National Guard is not a law enforcement and do not go to places where they work with law enforcement authorities,” said Jeff Asher, criminal analyst and consultant at AH Datalytics. “So I don’t know that it is fair to expect a lot from it.”
Trump said in a social media post that his initiative Washington from the “uncertain ‘city’ in the United States” in “Maybe the safest and every hour gets better!” Have transformed!
The number of crimes reported in DC fell by about 8% this week compared to the week earlier, according to the data of the metropolises. There were some differences in this data, with crimes such as robberies and car theft decreased, while burglaries rose a little and the murders remained stable.
Nevertheless, a week is a miniature sample size – far from enough time to show meaningful shifts, said Asher. With reference to the months in which the law of the household in DC is taking control of the police authority to the President, he said: “I think 30 days are too short to really say something.”
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Michael Kunzelman, Alanna Durkin Reicher, Jacquelyn Martin, Mike Pesoli and Ashraf Khalil, contributed to this report.
