The showdown in Washington is the latest attempt by Trump to test the boundaries of his legal authority to carry out his tough-on-crime agenda, relying on obscure statutes and a supposed state of emergency to speed up the mass deportation of people in the United States illegally.

The District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Friday, in response to what the district called the federal government’s “unlawful assertions of authority.”

The U.S. capital Washington sued Donald Trump on Friday over his attempted takeover of the city's police force, escalating a power struggle between the U.S. president and the city's leadership.