Business
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser says fear of ICE is disrupting business: ‘People aren’t going to work’
Cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the deployment of National Guard troops have left a lingering sting on Washington, D.C.—so much so that the mood of residents continues to be “very anxious.”
That’s according to Muriel Bowser, the three-term mayor of the nation’s capital, speaking at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit today.
“It’s an unsettling time, and I would point directly to the shifting footprint of the federal government in Washington,” Bowser said.
In August, President Donald Trump declared a “crime emergency” and deployed members of the National Guard, who continue to patrol parts of the city.
Violent crime in the city decreased by 35% between 2023 and 2024, and so far this year, it has decreased by 28%, according to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. (Allies of the Trump administration have opened an investigation into whether police leadership “deliberately manipulated crime data.”) Since the arrival of the National Guard, crime has decreased in the D.C. area. In the first three weeks, violent crime dropped by about 10%. (The city is not crime free—as Trump has claimed.)
But beyond the National Guard, Bowser also pointed to how immigration action has sent a chill across the city. Between Jan. 20 and the end of July, ICE made 85 arrests in the nation’s capital, according to data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and reported by The New York Times. From early August to mid-September, arrests increased to around 1,200.
“What we’re seeing is just devastating impact on unprecedented immigration enforcement, and that has the impact, obviously, on individuals, on their families, on their ability to work, but it also has a big impact on business,” she said.
“People aren’t going to work,” she added. It’s something she expects will have a lasting impact across industries, such as hospitality, tourism, and construction.
Bowser has led Washington, D.C., through a series of unexpected events, including the pandemic and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. And while some of her actions have disappointed some city residents, such as painting over of the “Black Lives Matter” street mural, she said she’s trying to “do the best that I can for the most people the fastest.”
Bowser said she will announce “at the appropriate time” if she will seek a fourth term next November.
