Joint Letter in Response to Bowser’s Praise of Federal Surge

September 2, 2025

Mayor Muriel Bowser

1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20004

Mayor Bowser,

We write to you as a coalition of local DC community-based organizations and national organizations based here in the District committed to the autonomy, freedom and dignity of all DC residents out of grave concern for the sentiment you expressed at last week’s press conference. The past three weeks have represented a clear threat to the people of DC, our security and the self-governance of our city that should be the 51st state.

We are deeply concerned that any elected official, let alone the leader of our city, would express appreciation for the federal intrusion that has been terrorizing our neighbors and disrupting our communities over the past three weeks. Every day, residents are being taken off our streets by masked and unmarked federal agents. Our neighbors – your constituents – are afraid to walk their children to school. Young people are being harassed simply trying to navigate their city amidst rapidly changing guidelines for how to stay safe.

This federal overreach has effectively sanctioned racial profiling and enables unchecked violations of civil and constitutional rights. And none of this intervention is intended to keep us safe. The pretext for this overreach is crime, but it is really about power and control–the latest in a long series of attacks on DC’s self-determination and on the freedom of its residents, particularly those who are immigrants, Black, brown, or experiencing poverty.

Your talk about crime fighting and crime rates only lends credence to the federal overreach, invites future attempts to degrade our home rule, and feeds a narrative that dehumanizes our neighbors and puts them at greater risk.

Every day our organizations are working with thousands of committed DC residents doing their part to keep ourselves safe and protect our neighbors. We need District leaders to have our back, not undermine the work we’re doing to fight back against this unprecedented intrusion. As you spoke in your press conference, committed advocates were doing the work to ensure Congress will stand up to the president and not authorize

any further intervention. Your words, and the actions of our police department to cooperate with this federal intrusion, undermine that work to keep DC free.

We demand that you immediately denounce the attempted federal takeover, insist on an end to the federal surge, defend DC residents from abuse by police and ICE, enforce DC’s Sanctuary Values Act and demand that DC’s autonomy be respected. 80% of DC residents oppose this federal presence. We ask you to stand with them, not with Trump.

We demand the same of all elected leaders and hope that you will find the courage to step up to this moment. History is calling upon you to lead our people, not to cower in the face of an authoritarian who does not have our best interests in mind. There is no strategy in appeasement, only the reality that the more we give, the more they will take.

This is a moment for moral clarity and leadership. Your words last week betrayed DC values and stand at odds with the vast majority of DC residents who resist this federal intrusion and want you to stand up for our safety and autonomy.

Sincerely,