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On August 11, 2025, President Donald Trump declared a crime emergency in Washington, D.C., deploying hundreds of National Guardsmen to occupy the city’s streets. Despite violent crime hitting a 30-year low in 2024, the National Guard now meets residents and visitors at nearly all metro stops and everywhere in between (United States Attorney’s Office, 2025). Between August 7th and September 5th, 1,669 people have been arrested in the District, leading to immense stress on the D.C. Court System (Lucas, 2025).

Strain on Attorneys

Meanwhile, in the basement of the D.C. Superior Court in room C-10, attorneys frequently stay past 1:00 am as over 100 individuals appear before them to hear the crimes they are accused of. This is roughly double the pre-surge number. The crimes that move through C-10 range from minor misdemeanors to serious felonies. It is here where prosecutors decide which cases they will pursue and which they will dismiss. In recent years, around half of the cases have been “no-papered” (Golden, 2025), meaning the US Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute them, typically because the evidence against the defendant is unreliable or weak (Polantz & Rabinowitz, 2025). Not only is the number of individuals on the lockup list increasing, but the number being prosecuted is increasing as well. The Trump Administration has “reportedly ordered federal prosecutors in DC to be more aggressive in pursuing criminal cases against those arrested during this crime crackdown” (WUSA9, 2025). Offenses that would typically be mere citations are now resulting in criminal charges. Under the leadership of US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a Trump appointee, the US Attorney's Office is allowing cases to play out in court, regardless of the case’s weakness. She has also instructed her office to “charge the highest crime that is supported by the law and the evidence” (Polantz & Rabinowitz, 2025).

This means there is a higher demand for public defenders and attorneys on the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) Panel, who take on an overwhelming majority of cases. The more cases being added to their workload, the less effective they can be. “We run the risk of falling short of our constitutional obligation to provide effective assistance of counsel”, a source told CNN (Polantz et al., 2025). This could potentially reduce the quality of representation and ultimately put more defendants behind bars.

Overcrowded Prisons

A little over one week after the surge began, the population of the DC jail grew by over 100. On August 20, the Central Detention Facility (CDF) reached 1,491 detainees, the highest since 2017. The CDF is not equipped to handle this capacity. Just months prior, the DC Auditor released a publication calling for the “Urgent Need for New D.C. Jail.” Deaths in the D.C. jail occur at three times the U.S. average, and the overdose deaths are ten times the national average, signaling serious health and safety concerns. There have been at least 1,595 maintenance reports “posing immediate risks to health and safety,” including but not limited to vermin, parasites, and mold. There are also extreme staff shortages, which have resulted in 30 million dollars of overtime pay to employees (Patterson, 2025). Several staff members have also been charged with bringing contraband into the facility. Additionally, female inmates, who are housed in the Correctional Treatment Facility (“CTF”), have also suffered from the surge since there has been a 25% increase in the number of females detained (CCE Analysis Shows Rising Population at the D. C. Jail since Federal Law Enforcement Surge, 2025).

Racial Disparities

According to court records, 90% of individuals on the lock-up list were black and around 75% were male. D.C. has long suffered from stark racial disparities in detainment, with black residents making up over 80% of arrests in each of the last two years. The occupation of federal agents will only exacerbate this. D.C. Federal Affairs reporter, Olivia George, analyzed over 1,200 arrest records this year between August 11 and September 10. She discovered that arrests associated with federal agents “were concentrated in the city’s poorest, least white, and most crime-ridden neighborhoods.” She also noted that other clusters of arrests were centered in low-crime areas near the National Mall, offering nothing but a spectacle for tourists’ amusement (Ciammachilli & Sinnenberg, 2025).

The Jurisdiction of the Guard

The Posse Comitatus Act was passed in 1878 after the end of Reconstruction with the purpose of ensuring that the military could not interfere in the establishment of a Jim Crow South (Nunn, 2025). The Act essentially prohibits the federal military from intervening in civilian law enforcement activities, unless Congress authorizes it. However, there are multiple loopholes. One of which is the concept of Title 32 Status. Under this, Guardsmen are compensated with federal funds and are at the beck and call of the president, while remaining under state command and control. Because the Guardsmen were activated under Title 32, they have a hybrid status that grants them the jurisdiction to complete searches and arrests (Nunn, 2025). Despite this, it is not the intended purpose for troops to make arrests in DC, but to act as a crime deterrent. Nonetheless, National Guardsmen have been detaining people (Vergun, 2025). This is extremely troubling given that they are neither trained nor adequately equipped to do this. They lack the body-worn cameras that police officers wear, meaning any sort of brutality or conflict would not be recorded, endangering all parties. Further, attorneys and the Court rely heavily on body-worn camera footage to assess probable cause and to confirm the defendants were properly advised, making its absence a threat to due process.

Prior to the deployment, attorneys in the D.C. court system were already overburdened, jails were overcrowded and in need of repair, and arrests were marked by racial disparities. The surge only exacerbated these issues, emphasizing the urgent need to reform an already damaged D.C. criminal justice system.

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References

CCE analysis shows rising population at the D. C. Jail since federal law enforcement surge. (2025).��
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Ciammachilli, E., & Sinnenberg, J. (2025). What 1,200 arrest records say about the surge of federal law enforcement in DC. VPM.
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Golden, J. (2025). At D.C. Superior Court, a system up at all hours under Trump’s order. The Washington Post; The Washington Post. At D.C. Superior Court, a system up at all hours under Trump’s order

Lucas, R. (2025). Trump’s D.C. takeover has led to more arrests. NPR looks at cases of those swept up. WYPR.
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Nunn, J. (2025). The posse comitatus act, explained | Brennan Center for Justice. Brennan Center For Justice.
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Patterson, K. (2025). Urgent Need for New D.C. Jail. Office of the District of Columbia Auditor.
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Polantz, K., Cohen, M., Lybrand, H., & Gannon, C. (2025). ‘It’s a real mess’: DC courts buckling as Trump’s crime crackdown brings deluge of new cases. WRAL News.
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Polantz, K., & Rabinowitz, H. (2025). Pirro directs prosecutors to pursue tougher charges in DC but softens enforcement of some gun crimes | CNN Politics. CNN.
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United States Attorney’s Office. (2025). District of columbia | violent crime in d. C. Hits 30 year low | United States Department of Justice.
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Vergun, D. (2025). Guard assisting law enforcement in making DC safe. Www.Army.Mil.
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WUSA9 (Director). (2025). DC courts strained by case surge from federal surge [Video recording].