Judge Torches Trump for Letting ICE Arrest People at Immigration Court

The National Guardsmen patrolling the city’s streets are not “in their lane,” said Hodges, citing his six-year stint as a member of the Virginia National Guard. “I can tell you that this is not what they’re trained to do,” Hodges said. “Soldiers are trained to fight and win wars. We’re not in a war out here in D.C. There’s crime out here, but it’s not a war-torn hellscape like Trump has said. The troops are not trained to do law enforcement.”

As for the officers from various federal agencies now policing Washington, he said, “I don’t think this is really their specialization either. So many of these federal officers are investigators. They’re supposed to be behind a desk, you know, working that way.” Rather than helping local police in the harsher areas of the city, Hodges said, “you’re going to see [the federal agents] standing around in Chinatown or on the [National] Mall or walking around Georgetown.” (Social media footage from the first few days of Trump’s takeover shows them doing just that.)

In the event that President Trump actually wants to help local law enforcement, Hodges offered some advice. For one, he said, the president could “actually allow D.C. to spend its own money.” D.C., after all, is currently still “in the hole” by about $1 billion due to Republican cuts to the city’s budget. Further, Hodges suggested, the Federal Emergency Management Agency could undo its recent 44 percent cut in assistance to the city’s security funding.