Washington DC\u2019s only Home Depot was busy with contractors and customers on Thursday morning \u2013 but the Hispanic day laborers who usually gather and wait for work under the parking lot\u2019s sparse trees were nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n
Two days earlier, masked federal agents swarmed the area and made several arrests, which were photographed by bystanders and posted on social media. Juwan Brooks, a store employee who witnessed the raid, said the agents grabbed anyone who appeared Hispanic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t ask no questions,\u201d Brooks said. People walking across the parking lot, getting out of their cars, or even sleeping in their vehicle \u2013 all were grabbed by the agents, leaving behind empty work trucks that were eventually towed away.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was cool when Trump was saying it, but to actually see it first hand? I didn\u2019t like it,\u201d Brooks said. The day laborers \u201care not bad people\u201d, and he wondered what happened to the children of the men that were taken away.<\/p>\n
Four days after Trump ordered federal agents and national guard on to the streets of Washington DC to fight a crime wave that city leaders say is not happening, residents of the capital are becoming used to the presence of groups of armed men in their neighborhoods, and the aggressive tactics they use.<\/p>\n
Beyond the apparent immigration arrests at Home Depot \u2013 which Brooks said was the second raid there he is aware of since Trump took office \u2013 federal agents have been spotted setting up roadblocks at busy intersections, and patrolling neighborhoods across the city. Trump, who exercised a never-before-used clause in the law governing the district to take over the Metropolitan police department (MPD) for 30 days, this week said he would seek Congress\u2019s approval to keep it under federal control for the \u201clong term\u201d.<\/p>\n
I just feel like it\u2019s too much federal overreach<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It\u2019s unclear how much of a difference the deployment has yet made on public safety. Rates of violent crime dropped to 30-year lows last year, but it remains more prevalent in Washington DC than many cities with similar populations. Since Trump made the deployment official on Monday, the city recorded two homicides, bringing its count for the year up to 101.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just feel like it\u2019s too much federal overreach. I think it\u2019s unnecessary, and I think our MPD does a great job,\u201d said Kevin Cataldo, a neighborhood commissioner whose district includes the block just north of downtown where the 100th homicide of the year took place on Monday, hours after Trump announced the federal takeover.<\/p>\n
Soldiers from the District of Columbia national guard patrol along the National Mall near the US Capitol on Thursday. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin\/AP<\/p>\n
The White House says 800 national guard troops will be on the ground in the city, along with hundreds of federal officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration, border patrol, FBI and other agencies. On Thursday afternoon, a half-dozen unarmed troops, who said they had been told not to talk to the press, could be found milling among the tourists visiting the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, an area not known for crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they are doing right now? It\u2019s just a show of force. I did that in Iraq,\u201d said Kevin Davis, a 21-year army veteran visiting the capital from El Paso, Texas. \u201cWhen people see the uniform, they act differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
More prevalent have been the federal agents who have appeared in neighborhoods across the overwhelmingly Democratic city.<\/p>\n
[Residents] were trying to tell them to leave, you know, the people in the street and the neighbors<\/p><\/blockquote>\n