By Hannah Rabinowitz, Clay Voytek, CNN

(CNN) — Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday evening ordered DC’s mayor and police department to accept Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency, as the district’s “emergency police commissioner” and give him full control of the department during the federal takeover — quickly drawing rebukes from the district’s mayor and attorney general, who suggested they would not comply.

Bondi’s order formalized the federal government’s control of DC police and directed DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Metropolitan Police Department to end the capital’s sanctuary city policies.

In the first signs of significant pushback to Trump’s DC police takeover, Bowser quickly rejected the order, writing on social media, “There is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal official.”

“Let us be clear about what the law requires during a Presidential declared emergency: it requires the mayor of Washington, DC to provide the services of the Metropolitan Police Department for federal purposes at the request of the President,” Bowser said. “We have followed the law.”

DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb reviewed Bondi’s order and declared it illegal. In a letter to DC Police Chief Pamela Smith, Schwalb wrote, “It is my opinion that the Bondi order is unlawful, and that you are not legally obligated to follow it.”

Schwalb determined the Home Rule Act did not give President Donald Trump the authority to remove or replace the chief of police, or alter the MPD chain of command.

Schwalb wrote that the act “does not authorize the President, or his delegee, to remove or replace the Chief of Police; to alter the chain of command within MPD; to demand services directly from you, MPD, or anyone other than the Mayor, to rescind or suspend MPD orders or directives; or to set the general enforcement priorities of MPD or otherwise determine how the District pursues purely local law enforcement. The Bondi Order is, therefore, ultra vires.”

Bondi’s order had further directed MPD to abandon a directive Smith signed earlier in the day giving officers limited ability to share information with federal immigration officials. And, the order said, MPD leaders “must receive approval from Commissioner Cole before issuing any further directives.”

Justice Department officials believed that earlier directive was meant to reinforce the type of sanctuary city policies that DOJ has vowed to put an end to, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

In addition to ordering that the directive be rescinded, Bondi instructed Bowser to get rid of two additional police policies aimed at protecting undocumented migrants, including one that prevents MPD from arresting an individual solely for federal immigration warrants.

This comes after Trump earlier this week declared a crime emergency and federalized DC’s police, tapping Cole as interim federal commissioner of MPD.

Schwalb wrote in his letter to Smith that Trump and Bondi are now overstepping their legal authority.

“Having been duly appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the Council, you are the lawfully appointed Chief of Police of the District of Columbia,” Schwalb wrote to Smith. “Therefore, members of MPD must continue to follow your orders and not orders of any official not appointed by the Mayor.”

CNN has reached out to MPD for comment.

Bondi’s move makes clear that the federal police takeover in DC will go hand-in-hand with the Trump administration’s hardline immigration enforcement goals, using control over law enforcement in the district as a way to try to put an end to the city’s laws that protect undocumented migrants.

“DC will not remain a sanctuary city actively shielding criminal aliens,” Bondi said in an interview on Fox News Thursday. “Will not happen.”

Christina Henderson, a member of the DC City Council, also responded to the order on social media Thursday, writing “Respectfully, the Attorney General does not have the authority to revoke laws.”

Earlier Thursday, Smith signed an executive order allowing DC police officers to share information about people not in their custody with federal immigration enforcement agencies, as well as allowing local police to assist with transporting the agencies’ personnel and detainees.

However, the earlier order — citing DC law and police code of conduct — continues to prohibit officers from looking through police databases solely for a person’s immigration status, from making inquiries about a person’s immigration status “for the purpose of determining whether they have violated the civil immigration laws or for the purpose of enforcing civil immigration laws” and from arresting anyone based only on federal immigration warrants.

This story and headline been updated with additional information.

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