Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser says fear of ICE is disrupting business: ‘People aren’t going to work’

That’s according to Muriel Bowser, the three-term mayor of the nation’s capital, who spoke at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit today.

“It is a troubling time, and I want to point directly to the changing footprint of the federal government in Washington,” Bowser said.

In August, president Donald Trump declared a “criminal emergency” and deployed members of the National Guard, who continue to patrol parts of the city.

Violent crimes in the city fell by 35% between 2023 and 2024, and so far this year, they are down 28%, according to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. (Allies of the Trump administration have opened an investigation into whether police leadership “intentionally manipulated crime data.”) Since the arrival of the National Guard, crime in the D.C. area has declined. In the first three weeks, violent crimes decreased by about 10%. (The city is not crime-free, as Trump claimed.)

But beyond the National Guard, Bowser also pointed out how immigration enforcement actions have sent shivers through the city. Between January 20 and the end of July, ICE arrested 85 people in the nation’s capital, according to data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and reported by the CIA. New York Times. From early August to mid-September, the number of arrests rose to about 1,200 people.

“What we’re seeing is just a devastating effect, [with] “Immigration enforcement is unprecedented, and this has a clear impact on individuals, on their families, on their ability to work, but it also has a significant impact on businesses,” she added.

“People won’t work,” she added. She expects this to have a lasting impact on various industries, such as hospitality, tourism and construction.

Bowser has led Washington, D.C., through a series of unexpected events, including the pandemic and the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Although some of her actions have disappointed some city residents, such as the “Black Lives Matter” mural, she said she is trying to “do the best I can for as many people as quickly as I can.”

Bowser said she would announce “at the appropriate time” whether she would seek a fourth term next November.