Featured Image Credit: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Crime, Donald Trump, Politics, US News, World News
Madison Burgess
Topics: Crime, Donald Trump, Politics, US News, World News
The White House has revealed that homeless people in Washington DC could face jail time if they refuse to comply with Donald Trump's crackdown on encampments in the capital.
For those who aren't up to speed, on Sunday (10 August), the US president took to his own social media platform, Truth Social, to demand that 'the homeless have to move out immediately'.
He wrote: “I’m going to make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before. The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY."
The Republican leader, 79, added: "We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital."
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It comes just weeks after he signed an executive order promising 'centres' to house homeless people in America.
During the same online threat, he continued to warn 'criminals' that they 'don't have to move out' because they're going to be put in jail.
Trump quipped: "The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong. It’s all going to happen very fast, just like the Border.
"We went from millions pouring in, to ZERO in the last few months. This will be easier - Be prepared! There will be no 'MR. NICE GUY.' We want our Capital BACK."
And now, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has lifted the lid on what they have planned for some homeless people - and a lot of people are not impressed with the comments.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, she said: "For far too long, these laws have been completely ignored, and the homelessness problem has ravaged the city.
"Homeless individuals will be given the option to leave their encampment, to be taken to a homeless shelter, to be offered addiction or mental health services - and if they refuse, they will be susceptible to fines or to jail time."
After Trump said that homeless individuals would be given a place to stay, Leavitt said the administration is still looking into that, as per ABC News.
She said: "We're exploring how we could do that", before clarifying that the 'options on the table right now' are homeless shelters, addiction and mental health services, or jail.
It comes as the president said on Monday that he is placing the Washington DC police department under federal control and deploying the National Guard to make the nation’s capital safer.
More than 100 FBI agents and about 40 agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among federal law enforcement personnel being assigned to patrols in Washington, a person briefed on the plans said, as per PA Media.
Trump also said he is invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to deploy members of the National Guard.
He compared crime in the American capital with that in other major cities around the world, saying Washington performs poorly on safety relative to the capitals of Iraq, Brazil and Colombia, among others.
“We’re getting rid of the slums, too,” he said, adding that the US would not lose its cities and that Washington was just a start.
And last month, he issued an executive order to 'shift homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment, through the appropriate use of civil commitment' to 'restore public order'.
Among the critics of Trump's executive is Jesse Rabinowitz, campaign and communications director at the National Homelessness Law Center.
She told The Guardian: "It’s one of the most harmful things to happen to folks who live outside in decades. It is not going to help anybody.
"It sets the stage for rounding up folks who are homeless, folks with mental health issues, folks who are disabled - and instead of helping them, forcing them into detention camps and institutions. So it’s terrifying."