Scoop: D.C.'s "sanctuary city" status in question after webpage removed

The big picture: Bowser wasn't one of the Democratic mayors called to testify in Congress this week over their sanctuary city policies.

State of play: An FAQ page devoted to questions about immigration rights, discrimination and school access has disappeared from the D.C. government.

• The webpage had contained statements Bowser made after the 2016 election, when she declared D.C. was "doubling down" on being a sanctuary city. At the time, Bowser marshaled taxpayer dollars to fight deportations, creating grants for defense lawyers and nonprofits to help undocumented immigrants.
• She put D.C. in the same camp as Chicago, Los Angeles and other Democratic-run cities and states who were resisting the first Trump administration's deportation threats.
• As she told a group of irate anti-Trump activists in November that year: "I have asserted firmly that we are a sanctuary city."

The removal of the webpage coincides with muted statements from the mayor.

• Bowser no longer uses the phrase "sanctuary city," she said last month, "because I think it is misleading."
• "It's misleading to suggest to anyone that if you're violating immigration laws, that this is a place where you can violate immigration laws," she said. "You are vulnerable to federal immigration enforcement."

When asked in December if D.C. would comply with ICE detainment orders, Bowser told Congressional Republicans: "We will follow the law."

Between the lines: Federal and local laws conflict.

• D.C. has a law that limits how much city agencies and local law enforcement can cooperate with ICE. That measure, passed by the D.C. Council during President Trump's first term, has effectively reinforced D.C.'s status as a sanctuary city.
• But it's not clear how far Bowser will lean on the law to prevent deportations now.

Her office declined to comment for this story.