The Roundup: Could Trump Take Over Seattle Too?
From the Editor
What's up, South End?
One of the biggest stories in the country the past couple of weeks has been President Trump's takeover of the Washington, D.C., police department.
The presidential administration has deployed federal troops and the National Guard into neighborhoods in the nation's capitol.
As our social media feeds are flooded with images of federal troops on patrol in city streets — as well as mugshot-esque pics of citizens under arrest, when the people depicted are yet to be formally charged or convicted — there are so many questions surrounding the situation.
I'm left wondering, what happens next? The president has already started issuing threats that he will take over more cities. Is this legal? Does legality even matter if he decides to move forward?
Seattle is on the short list of cities that Trump has threatened in the past, going back to the first COVID-19 years, when he called our city a "shithole." I'm just as curious as y'all about whether federal troops will arrive on our doorstep next. So, I reached out to an expert for some answers.
Vanessa Torres Hernandez is the integrated advocacy director for the ACLU of Washington. She says she thinks people should remember that we are not powerless in this situation. We must continue to speak and stand against injustice.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
MD: Trump has taken over the D.C. police because Washington, D.C., is not a state. Can you explain what this means?
VTH: Washington, D.C., is a federal district, and it is governed by a law called the Home Rule Act, which has a section in it that the president has invoked, which he claims empowers him to take over the D.C. police department. Separately, he has also mobilized the D.C. National Guard to support the now-federalized D.C. troops. And while the president may have emergency powers in D.C., this is an abuse of those emergency powers. The president is baselessly asserting control over the nation's capitol under circumstances that just do not justify it. His claim is that crime is rising in D.C., and those claims are absolutely baseless.
MD: Trump has mentioned on camera that he can potentially take over additional cities. Can he do that?
VTH: The president has threatened this repeatedly, both in connection with D.C. to deploy troops, specifically National Guard troops, and in other cities across the country. In fact, he has done that in Los Angeles under a claim [from a] different authority. But the through line is very clear, which is a pattern of abusing emergency powers and deploying troops and armed federal agents into communities across the country in ways that undermine basic American values and weaponize the military to accomplish the president's political goals.
The federal government does not have the authority to seize police forces in American cities and in the states. The president has claimed the authority to send the National Guard into American cities. The National Guard is generally under control of the states, but under limited emergency circumstances, the president can seize control and command of the National Guard, and this is to do things like repel an active invasion by an invading army, or, in limited instances, where the states have just refused to enforce federal court orders, for example. But the idea that the president could unilaterally take control of the National Guards in other states or take over police in the other states is an extraordinary abuse of power.
MD: Seattle is a city that Trump has threatened before. Are we currently at risk of having federal agents or the National Guard deployed here?
VTH: I think our state absolutely has the power to fight against the presidential abuse of power. At the same time, I think that it is important for our state to prepare for the possibility of an extraordinary abuse of power. The military should never be in American cities acting against our residents and citizens. And while we should be prepared that the president may attempt to follow through on the abuse of emergency powers that he has made against other cities, we are not powerless, and we have to fight back.
The Roundup Rundown
A lot of people may not know this, but as a parent and a former Beacon Hill resident, I do: South Seattle has the highest rate of asthma hospitalizations in the city.
Emerald contributor Jadenne Radoc Cabahug profiled the Beacon Hill family of 5-year-old Osiris, who has asthma. Osiris' family quickly learned something that our family also had to understand: The South End, including Beacon Hill, is subject to the worst air pollution in the city.
In Beacon Hill, infamous for the "Beacon Hill pause," where residents have to temporarily stop conversations due to noise from airplanes passing overhead, the neighborhood air quality is impacted by being in the flight path of planes heading in and out of the airport.
One hundred community members invited elected officials to a town hall at the Martin Luther King FAME Community Center, where they highlighted similarities between the Japanese American community during World War II and the treatment of immigrants in our community today.
Unfortunately, no elected officials came to the event in person, but a few, including Mayor Bruce Harrell, sent staffers.
The community members urged elected officials to take actions against the detention of immigrants, including ending the contract with the GEO Group, the private detention company operating the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC), and ending ICE flights in and out of the King County International Airport.
Mike Davis is the newsletter editor and Voices editor at the South Seattle Emerald. Born and raised in Seattle's South End, Mike is a longtime journalist who's covered everything from arts and culture to sports to politics.
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