Residents of a Northwest D.C. neighborhood are growing increasingly concerned about the presence of federal agents, especially outside an elementary school.
Mount Pleasant residents say they have seen an increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and the overall feeling inside of the community is fear and anxiety.
“It’s really terrifying and sad, and luckily, you know, young kids, some of the can kind of be blind to it,” a woman told News4.
Residents say Columbia Heights also is known to have a large ICE presence.
A Bancroft Elementary School parent told News4 the first days of the school were painful.
“It’s mind-bending; it’s gut-wrenching; it’s just really, really sad, and it makes me really afraid for the community,” she said.
“I feel very privileged because I don’t feel like my son would be targeted simply because of the color of his skin and where he lives,” she said.
The uptick of federal and immigration agents comes as more than 2,000 National Guard troops from seven states and D.C. are deployed around the District with more on the way. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday he’s deploying more than 300 National Guard troops to D.C. days before President Donald Trump’s crime emergency is set to expire next week.
The National Guard announced an order extending benefits and pay for deployed troops if deployment continues beyond September.
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit calling the National Guard deployment illegal and seeking to block it after a legal precedent was determined in Los Angeles.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser deferred all questions about the lawsuit to the AG’s office Thursday but did say, “This has been a legal question throughout the emergency, not just today, and I will just reiterate that my focus and the focus of our emergency operations center is on planning for the exit out of the emergency next week and post emergency operation.”
In Mount Pleasant, neighbors say they want to see a reduction both in the federal and immigration presence throughout the community.
“It’s really unfortunate what’s happening in this community,” a man told News4.
“It’s something that the rest of the country should be paying attention to, because they’re talking about spreading this to other major cities, and unfortunately in D.C., we have no representation, and so we have very little control over our fate. But I hope other cities step up and really put a stop to this.”
The Washington Post and Politico cited unnamed sources Thursday in reporting U.S. House leaders don’t plan to hold a vote to extend Trump’s temporary takeover of the D.C. police department.
The crime emergency is set to end Sept. 10.
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