In recent weeks, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy claimed that Union Station in Washington, D.C., has been serving “more as a center for vagrancy than a hub for commerce and travel.” In a press conference, Vice President J.D. Vance claimed that the historic station—D.C.’s major transportation hub for trains, buses, and the Metro system—like much of the rest of the nation’s capital, was full of “ vagrants ” and “chronically homeless” people who ought to be removed.

These comments aimed to justify President Trump’s recent decision to deploy members of the National Guard around D.C. But they also reveal the administration’s obsession with the specter of “vagrancy.” In March 2025, for example, Trump issued an executive order demanding the “prompt removal and cleanup of all homeless

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