About 100 immigrants and supporters in the nation’s capital rallied inside and outside the Wilson Building, calling on Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Council to stop collaborating with federal immigration enforcement.
Wednesday morning, several advocacy groups said the mayor wasn’t forthcoming in September, at the end of President Donald Trump’s declared crime emergency, when she said, “Immigration enforcement is not what MPD does, and with the end of the emergency, it won’t be what MPD does in the future.”
Solomon Ayalew, local chapter director of African Communities Together, told protesters gathered in the hallway outside the council’s chambers, “Today, people are being taken from their homes, schools and workplaces in Columbia Heights, Fort Totten, places we all walk through, and our leaders remain silent.”
Ayalew and others chided city leaders for not taking a more vocal stand.
“Silence isn’t neutrality, it’s complicity,” Ayalew said. “It allows fear to grow. Workers disappear from restaurants and job sites, parents keep their kids home and our neighborhoods lose the sense of safety that comes from community, not policing.”
He said the mayor and council are silently standing by, which is enabling others to dominate the conversation about safety in the nation’s capital.
“Real safety doesn’t come from fear or intimidation,” Ayalew said. “It comes from trust, from community and from a city that protects all of its people, no matter who they are and where they come from.”
Attorney Nithya Nathan-Pineau, with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, laid out specific goals of the protesters.
“We demand an immediate end to joint enforcement actions and checkpoints,” Nathan-Pineau said. “And immediate rescission of the chief of police’s executive order, which allows D.C. to provide information and resources to ICE.”
In addition, she said voters in the District have made clear that they support D.C. being a sanctuary city.
“And, we demand compliance with the Sanctuary Values Act,” she said, to cheers from advocates standing beside her.
Contacted by WTOP, the mayor’s office declined to comment.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
© 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
