U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds PHOTO COURTESY OF BRITANNICA.COM

By David L. Snelling

Miami- Part of President Donald Trump’s plan to crack down on crime throughout the U.S., includes offenders as young as 14 years old will now be charged as an adult in Washington D.C.

U.S. Congress passed a major law enforcement crime crackdown bill, the D.C. Crime Acts 2025, in which kids will be charged and punished for crimes they commit and receive the same penalty as adults.

Congress acted on Trump’s challenge to enforce strict crime laws and harsh penalties for minors, as the House of Representatives approved two DC crime bills that address issues of juvenile delinquency.

One of the bills, known as the DC Crimes Act, would require the DC attorney general to report youth criminal acts on a public website.

The bill will also require that those age 18 to 24 no longer be sentenced under juvenile guidelines.

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) sponsored the bill, indicating youth crime in the nation’s Capital is surging.

“The House has passed my bill, HR 4922 – “The DC Crimes Act” with a bipartisan vote of 240-179. Simply put, if you’re 18-24 years old and you commit a crime in our nation’s capital, you should be sentenced as an adult. This is common sense. We are making DC safe again.” Rep. Donalds said on social media.

The republican proposed bill also received support from some Democrats.

“D.C.’s soft-on-crime policies have failed to keep D.C. residents and visitors safe,” said Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer.

In addition to his massive illegal immigration crackdown policy, Trump is focusing on curbing crime in U.S. cities, especially where the crime rates are high.

Trump is deploying 1,700 National Guard to 19 states including U.S. cities Washington D.C., and Memphis, Tennessee, in a plan to federalize local police agencies to reduce the crime rates.

Memphis police recently reported decreases in every major crime category in the first eight months of 2025, compared to the same period last year.

Overall crime hit a 25-year low, while murder is at a six-year low, police said.

Despite the overall decrease, Memphis has dealt with stubborn gun violence problems for years.

In 2023, the city set a record with more than 390 homicides.

As for Florida, U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Miami) dismissed reports that Trump is sending the National Guard to Miami.

In a post on X, Rep. Carlos Gimenez said he spoke with the Office of the Attorney General and that the National Guard will not be deployed to Miami.

“Miami is not Chicago or San Francisco – and never will be,” he said. Youth crime throughout the U.S is on the rise. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, youth under the age of 16 accounted for 54 percent of all cases processed in juvenile court in 2022.

About 134,900 delinquency cases involved detention while youth were awaiting adjudication. which represents a 26 percent increase since 2012.

Among adjudicated cases in 2022, roughly 28 percent resulted in out-of-home placement such as secure treatment facility or a therapeutic group home.

Probation was ordered in 67 percent of all cases that involved an adjudication of delinquency.

In 2022, a total of 3,000 cases were waived from juvenile to adult court.

This figure does not include youth who were sent automatically to adult court by statute or direct filing from prosecutors.

Laws related to when and how young people’s cases are judicially waived to adult courts vary by jurisdiction.

Black, Hispanic and Native American youth remain overrepresented in the juvenile justice system. Once referred to the court, cases involving young people who were Black or Hispanic, were less likely than cases involving white youth to be sent to diversion and more likely to be detained or waived to adult court.

According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a national nonprofit focused on improving youth well-being, among youth who are referred to court on weapons charges, justice system responses have evolved to divert fewer youth from prosecution and funnel more youth into locked detention.

In many jurisdictions, youth facing gun possession charges are often transferred to stand trial as adults.

“All of these practices are likely to increase a young person’s risk of reoffending, despite research indicating that their risk to public safety is minimal and their possession is largely linked to self-protection,” the foundation said.

The D.C. Crimes Act passed 240-179 as 31 Democrats teamed up with the Republicans. After the Crimes Act passed, the House approved a second bill with a vote of 225 to 203. The more controversial bill lowers the age at which people can be charged as adults. Eight Democrats backed the second crime bill in the vote.

Delano Squires, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said the “connection between family structure and financial stability is one that is fairly consistent across time.”

The immediate political reality is that Trump had a mandate to improve the economy for the middle class, including Black voters. But many of those voters now see an administration more focused on deporting immigrants and expanding its own grip on power, possibly threatening Republicans’ chances of holding onto the House and key Senate seats in next year’s elections.

“We’re in a new era,” said Alexsis Rodgers, political director at the Black to the Future Action Fund. “There are people who obviously believed his promises, that Trump was going to do something about the cost of eggs, the cost of housing. They’ve seen the focus instead is on ICE raids and downsizing the government.”