Our Response to the “Summer Surge”
On May 15th, the Trump Administration announced a “summer surge” to “ensure Washington, DC is the safest city in America ahead of the nation’s 250th Independence Day celebrations.” To this end, the administration has called for 1,500 National Guard to deploy to DC. This brings the number of troops deployed on DC city streets since the occupation began last August to 5,000. Further with this announcement, the reactionary Trump regime has increased the number of armed federal gangs roaming our streets to harass immigrants, Black youth, and working class people.
To this we say: shame! Shame to the Trump Administration that has done nothing but ratchet up attacks against immigrants, federal workers, Black youth, and activists here in the district. Shame! To Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has thus far complied with the federal occupation that sees federal agents swarming predominantly Black, Latino, and immigrant areas like a plague. These conditions the Mayor has helped bring into being are responsible for the shootings of Justin Nelson and Phillip Brown in November 2025, and the murder of Julian Bailey in February of this year. These conditions are responsible for the detention of over 1,000 immigrants in the first two months of the occupation, and the implementation of racist curfew zones where only Black youth are stopped and freely harassed by the police under the guise of public safety. Taking it a grotesque step further, the U.S. district attorney announced parents can now face up to six months of jail time for not adhering to the curfew laws.
The fight for DC statehood and community control of the police are inextricably bound, and that is why, in the DC Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression, we fight for both. These are not lofty dreams but the realization distilled to action that reflect the critical felt needs of DC residents to protect our democracy from tyrannical federal government takeover, and to hold the police accountable for the crimes they commit against us. Our comrades in Chicago show us that when we fight, we win, and when we win, we have the power to demand the arrest of ICE and other federal agents found to be breaking local municipal law.
We want the power to hold police in DC who shoot and murder us accountable to the law that applies to everyone else, and to protect the democracy generations of Washingtonians have fought so hard to attain. To Trump we say: Hands off DC! Trump must go now! To the mayor and city council we say: DC Statehood now! And to the people we say: the power is in our hands. CPAC Now!