Byron Donalds files bill cracking down on youth crime in Washington

Byron Donalds seeks to turn Donald Trump's campaign promise into law.

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds wants Congress to crack down on sentencing leniency in Washington, D.C.

The Naples Republican filed the D.C. Criminal Reform to Immediately Make Everyone Safer (D.C. CRIMES) Act, which would prohibit the D.C. Council from pursuing a “progressive, soft-on-crime sentencing policy.”

“For far too long, our nation’s capital has been plagued by an epidemic of violence due to the soft-on-crime policies of far-left, local leaders. Weak leadership by anti-cop radicals gives rise to chaos and the reign of terror unleashed on innocent residents and visitors of our nation’s capital must end now,” Donalds said.

“Congress has a constitutional responsibility to oversee the District of Columbia, and it’s imperative that we act quickly to assert our control when local government fails to do its job. The American people deserve better, and I will not stand idly by while our capital city devolves into chaos. My DC CRIMES Act will restore law and order to the District.”

Donalds filed the bill as he runs for Florida Governor with the endorsement of President Donald Trump. The legislation follows a call by Trump to clamp down on crime by youths in Washington.

“Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control. Local ‘youths’ and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released,” Trump posted on social media.

“They are not afraid of Law Enforcement because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it’s going to happen now! The Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these ‘minors’ as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14.”

The legislation focuses on enforcement of crime committed by child and young adult offenders. Donalds wants Congress to exert its authority on the municipal government in the nation’s capital. The legislation would strip the D.C. Council of any ability to change mandatory minimum sentences and sentencing guidelines.

Among changes proposed, it would lower the definition of youth offenders who can be tried in juvenile court to defendants under the age of 18. Right now, D.C. can try anyone up to age 24 as juveniles.

The bill would also eliminate judicial discretion that allows youth offenders to be sentenced below the mandatory minimum for a crime.

For prosecutors, the legislation would require the establishment of a public website providing data on juvenile crime.

Trump suggested that a crackdown on youth crime was necessary in the city.

“The most recent victim was beaten mercilessly by local thugs. Washington, D.C., must be safe, clean, and beautiful for all Americans and, importantly, for the World to see. If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore,” Trump wrote.

“Perhaps it should have been done a long time ago, then this incredible young man, and so many others, would not have had to go through the horrors of Violent Crime. If this continues, I am going to exert my powers, and FEDERALIZE this City.”

Of note, Donalds’ crackdown on sentencing marks a different direction than his approach in the past. In 2021, the Naples Republican told CPAC that conservatives must “appreciate that people who have broken laws are still American citizens and there must be a conduit for them to come back into society.”

He also stressed at the event that the U.S. needed “a system that punishes and completes the punishment of those who do wrong.”

During Trump’s first term, Donalds traveled to South Carolina to give the 2019 Bipartisan Justice Award to Trump on behalf of the 2020 Bipartisan Justice Center, a nationwide coalition of Black Republicans, Democrats and independents focused on reform. That was after Trump signed the First Step Act, which shortened many prison sentences and called for job training for prisoners to return to society.