WASHINGTON (7News) — D.C. is looking forward to an economic boost from added tourists this summer.

Tourism numbers for the America 250 celebration are looking positive. Hotel bookings are up, as D.C. prepares to celebrate America’s birthday.

The National Mall is ground zero for the 4th of July festivities, with the Folklife Festival, the 4th of July Parade, fireworks and free museums. Plus, this year, there is an extra emphasis on historic and cultural exhibits. 50 million visitors are estimated to inject millions into the local economy.

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“It’s very hard right now for us to tell you exactly what the economic impact is. overall, events like this, we typically don’t know the impact until after the event has taken place,” said Elliott Ferguson, Destination DC CEO.

According to Destination DC, 27.2 million people visited D.C. in 2025, up 20,000 visitors from the year before. They spent almost $12 billion, bringing in $2.5 billion in tax revenue and creating more than 114 thousand jobs.

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International visitation declined by 4%.

This summer of 2026, hotel bookings are up. More than two dozen hotels have DC250 packages, hoping to attract overnight guests. Luxury hotels are reporting record packages.

Visitors to the District pump billions directly into the local economy, accounting for over $11.4 billion in recent annual visitor spending and generating $2.3 billion in local tax revenue. And there’s a strong demand for the July 4 period.

D.C. has also secured 18 conventions for 2026, estimated to bring in $317(m) according to Exhibitor Online. This influx saves the average D.C. household more than $3,600 in taxes.

“As we look at the events with America’s 250 and the events that this Trump administration is bringing to the city, it has been positive for the industry,” Ferguson added.

Major openings are adding to the expected summer tourism boom, including the National Geographic Museum, renovations to the Air and Space Museum, and the new Lincoln Memorial Undercroft exhibit. The Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., will take place Aug.22 to 23, 2026, marking the firstever IndyCar series race on the National Mall.

These tourism dollars are critical, saving the average D.C. household more than $3,600 in taxes, as D.C. is facing headwinds from reductions to the federal workforce and commercial real estate challenges.

Bagel shop manager Fernando Mejia was arrested by federal agents just over a year ago in the Port Washington store’s parking lot. Since then, including Monday evening, members of the Port Washington community have kept a weekly vigil to honor Mejia, who they consider one of their own, and bring attention to how his abrupt arrest, and ultimate deportation, left a void in his family, at his workplace and among anyone in town who knew him.

For 52 consecutive Mondays, they have flocked to the Main Street side of the Port Washington Long Island Rail Road station as a tribute to Mejia and their other immigrant neighbors who have been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and never returned home. The weekly 7 p.m. effort, dubbed the “Port Shines a Light in a Sea of Darkness” vigil by organizers, began a few weeks after Mejia’s June 12 arrest and has continued, even after he agreed to self deport and return to family in his native El Salvador.

Vigil co-organizer Jeff Seigel, 68, told the crowd of about 75 people — many toting handwritten protest signs — that Mejia was “doing well, although well is a relative term.”

Mejia is unable come back to Port Washington to see his teenage daughter, who stood in the crowd Monday evening and who Seigel said flies to El Salvador for visits.

“He came here when he was about 20 years old, and here in the United States is where he became a man,” Seigel, 68, said. “He worked very hard, always. And it is here in the United States where he became a father. … After five months in detention, he could no longer wait to see if the immigration court would rule in his favor.”

Mejia, the former manager of Schmear Bagel & Cafe on Main Street, one block west of where each vigil is held, was one of about 3,000 Long Islanders arrested by federal immigration agents through March 10 as part of President Donald Trump’s ramped-up deportation push since his return to power, Newsday previously reported.

Mejia had just started his car in the bagel shop’s parking lot about 6:30 a.m. on June 12 to make a delivery when federal agents converged and placed him under arrest. Over the months that followed, Mejia bounced from facility-to-facility — first in Manhattan, then in Newark, Louisiana and Miami. He does not have a criminal record, his attorney, Bryan Richard Pu-Folkes, previously told Newsday. Pu-Folkes said at the time Mejia was likely detained due to a January 2006 deportation order from the Executive Office for Immigration Review for unlawful presence in the country.

Pu-Folkes did not immediately return a phone message Monday seeking comment. Mejia could not be immediately reached for comment.

The weekly efforts help community organizers raise awareness and funds for legal fees and even food for immigrants in the community. Another goal, said Stan Lacy, also a vigil organizer, is distributing whistles throughout the community. As Lacy and other members of Port Washington’s Rapid Response Network drive around Port Washington and encounter ICE agents, they blow whistles to alert immigrants of their presence.

After a trio of arrests “a little over a month ago,” ICE’s presence has been “relatively quiet,” he said.

Fellow organizer Stacey Mellus told Newsday the weekly vigils sometimes draw immigrants thankful for the community support, but not so much “when more ICE activity is in the area, when the climate gets a little more hot.”

“I witnessed one of those abductions here, you’re never going to get over something like that,” Mellus, 50, of Port Washington, said. “I’m never going to get over seeing people separated from their families, people yelling ‘don’t take my husband.’ “

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states should be allowed to count ballots that are mailed on time but arrive after Election Day.

In a 5-4 decision, the high court rejected a Republican-led attack on laws in more than half the states and the District of Columbia that permit mailed ballots to arrive and be counted some number of days after the election, provided they are postmarked by Election Day. The outcome spares officials the headache of changing their ballot rules just a few months before the 2026 midterm congressional elections.

The decision, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, is a defeat for President Donald Trump who has repeatedly claimed mail-in voting encourages fraud, an assertion not backed up by evidence. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. also joined the court’s three liberals in the ruling.

The question before the court was whether Mississippi was acting legally when it permitted ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrived within five business days of the election.

“The federal election-day statutes do not preempt Mississippi’s law because the defining element of an ‘election’ has always been the electorate’s choice of candidate,” the decision said.

A voter’s choice is made when voting is complete, not when ballots are received, it said.

Thirteen other states have grace periods for ballots cast by mail. Another 15 have longer deadlines for military and overseas voters.

Last year, Trump signed an executive order that would require votes to be “cast and received” by Election Day, but it has been blocked by court challenges.

Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart noted during arguments before the Supreme Court in March that the Trump administration had failed to produce a single case of fraud due to mail ballots that arrived after Election Day.

Among the state with deadlines after Election Day are California, Texas, New York and Illinois. Rural areas of Alaska also allow post-Election Day ballots.

The Associated Press reported that four states dominated by Republican lawmakers, Kansas, North Dakota, Ohio and Utah, dropped their grace periods last year. That’s according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and Voting Rights Lab.

President Donald Trump said he voted by mail in a Florida election due to scheduling conflicts, explaining he could not be there in person. The remarks come as Palm Beach County records show Trump cast a mail ballot in an upcoming special election, despite his public criticism of the voting method as fraudulent.

During arguments, some of the conservative justices seemed skeptical of late-arriving mail ballots. Justice Samuel Alito for example asked about the appearance of fraud if ballots that arrived after Election Day flipped an election.

The liberal justices on the other hand indicated they would uphold the state laws and noted that federal law allows states to set their own regulations governing elections. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the states and Congress should decide the issue, not the courts. 

Federal law sets Election Day as “the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November.”

Mississippi passed its election law during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was challenged by the Republican National Committee, the Mississippi Republican Party and others.

An appellate court, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, struck down Mississippi’s grace period. Judge Andrew Oldham wrote that the state law allowing the late-arriving ballots to be counted violated federal law.

The three judges who decided Mississippi’s law was unconstitutional were all appointed by Trump during his first term.