TOWNHALL | Published March 6, 2025
On Wednesday, several Democrat mayors representing so-called “sanctuary cities” testified before members of Congress about illegal immigration.
This panel included Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
Predictably, there was no shortage of unhinged moments that derived from this hearing.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer opened the hearing by imploring Congress to cut off federal funding for “sanctuary cities.”
“President Biden enacted policies starting on the day he assumed office to allow millions of unvetted illegal aliens to pour into the United States. Many of these illegal aliens have long rap sheets including violent crimes,” Comer said.
“The mayors here today each lead so-called sanctuary cities…These policies only create sanctuary for criminals. Sanctuary cities violate federal immigration law…and restore integrity to the American immigration system and the rule of law,” he added.
When questioning began, all four mayors acted like they were against open borders. But, when asked what consequences should be in place for people who come to the US illegally, not one mayor said that they should be deported.
Boston Mayor Wu took shots at Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, for criticizing her city for allowing illegal aliens. Wu claimed that he lied about safety her city.
“Bring him here under oath and let’s ask him some questions,” she said, adding that he would “bring hell” to Boston.
Wu argued back-and-forth with Arizona GOP Rep. Paul Gosar about comprehensive immigration reform.
“If you want to make us safe, pass gun reforms,” she said, deflecting from the issue at hand. She added that she doesn’t believe her city needs to follow federal immigration law.
Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan called out Denver Mayor Johnston for refusing to comply with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), pointing out that an illegal alien gang member was released by one of his county jails last week. The illegal was charged with motor vehicle threat, assault, and felony menacing.
ICE had asked for a 48 hour heads-up about this illegal alien being released. Apparently, they only gave ICE a one-hour notice.
South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace (R) told Chicago Mayor Johnson that he has a 6 percent approval rating because he “sucks at answering questions.” This came after he refused to answer a simple question about deporting criminals.
“All of the mayors here today are actively working to harm the American people you represent,” Mace said. “You all have blood on your hands.”
Of course, Democrats flew off the handle during the hearing that highlighted the immense harm that happens when illegals pour into our country.
Democrat New Mexico Rep. Melanie Stansbury called Trump’s efforts to make America safe again “bullshit” and claimed that “immigrant kids” are hurt by his policies.
“It’s total bullshit. Absolute bullshit. They are not making America safer and what they are doing is terrorizing immigrant families,” she said, not differentiating legal immigrants from illegals.
“That is what they are doing. Parents who are afraid to send their kids to school. Parents who are afraid that they won’t come home again. Kids that are afraid to leave their houses. Refugees who have waited for years to come into this country. And, our mayors are sitting here during this ridiculous, ridiculous hearing,” she claimed.
Clearly, Stansbury doesn’t care about American children like Jocelyn Nungaray, who was killed by illegal aliens.
Democrat Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley began aggressively talking over her colleagues and resorted to shouting in the hearing as she read off a headline stating that US-born citizens commit more rapes than immigrants.
Suddenly, Comer and Pressley got into a shouting match. During this, Comer called Pressley out on trying to be dramatic to get a spot on MSNBC.
Rep. Comer shared the following exclusive statement with Townhall about the hearing:
“The mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver, and New York today refused to denounce their cities’ policies that have created a sanctuary for criminal illegal aliens. President Trump has acted swiftly to secure our nation’s border and now we must ensure the removal of all the criminal illegal aliens who entered during the Biden Border Crisis. If these mayors continue to refuse cooperation with federal immigration authorities, Congress must cease providing them or any other sanctuary jurisdiction with federal funding for failing their basic duty to protect the American people.”
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SOURCE: www.townhall.com
RELATED: Florida Republican exposes Dem sanctuary city mayors over huge sums they have spent on migrant crisis
Mayor Adams from New York, Mayor Johnson from Denver, Mayor Johnston from Chicago, and Mayor Wu from Boston.
THE NEW YORK POST | Published March 6, 2025
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) exposed sanctuary city mayors over outrageous sums of taxpayer money they’ve spent on the migrant crisis during a blistering line of questioning in a hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday — but half of them couldn’t even provide a full figure.
“Around $79 million since 2022,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston told members of the House Oversight Committee, while New York City Mayor Eric Adams disclosed a stunning $6.9 billion has been spent on the migrant crisis.
Also present at the hearing was Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who explained 1% of his city’s overall budget went to illegal immigration — roughly amounting to $166 million of the $16.6 billion spent last year — but he wouldn’t provide a hard number.
“You don’t ask about how much money the city of Boston has spent on illegal immigration? Are you out of your mind?” Donalds asked. “To the city of Boston, just understand that your mayor does not care how much of your resources she has spent on people who are not citizens.”
Wu offered Beantown’s Aaa bond rating as proof that its financial house in order.
While Adams got a comparatively gentle line of questioning from most Republicans in the committee, the others — leaders of some of the largest sanctuary cities in the country — were forced to explain their policies after refusing for years to cooperate with federal illegal immigration enforcement.
Some of the migrants have slipped through the localities’ fingers and gone on to commit horrific rapes and murders.
Johnson, Johnston and Wu pushed back in their opening statements against the charges, pointing to decreasing crime rates in their cities, while acknowledging that detainers from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are only honored for migrants with a criminal warrant — not civil requests.
That still left hundreds of dangerous migrants released the streets each year. In New York alone, federal civil immigration detainers plummeting from 1,485 in 2020 to fewer than 200 over the next four years of the Biden administration, according to NYPD statistics.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) grilled the mayors on how much taxpayer money they’ve spent on the migrant crisisYoutube/Associated Press
“It is very difficult for ICE to get a judicial warrant,” Staten Island GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis told The Post, displaying the statistics sheets outside the hearing room. “It takes time. It’s not something that can be done quickly. And that is the problem. … It is literally an obstacle that Democrats have put in place because they don’t want to comply with detainer requests.”
Some Republican members on the Oversight panel called those practices outright violations of federal law — with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) at one point even saying she was referring three of the big city Dems to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution.
Only Adams was spared from the referral because he “stated publicly that he believes that illegal immigration is hurting his city,” Luna told The Post outside the hearing room after her round of questioning.
“I actually went through and asked those people individual questions pertaining to their own policies,” she said. “And I gave them a chance if they would have answered and said, ‘No, I think this is wrong … I wouldn’t have referred them. But the fact that they didn’t, and then they doubled down, then I referred them.”
Meanwhile, multiple members of the panel blamed sanctuary city policies for infamous murders committed by migrants — including Laken Riley, the nursing student who was killed in Georgia by a Venezuelan gang members who came through New York City.
“Every crime committed by someone in the United States illegally is a crime that would not have been committed,” Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) stated in the hearing.
“Laken Riley, Rubi Garcia, Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray, the woman set on fire in the New York subway — these are all assaults, rapes, murders and other crimes that would not have taken the lives of these people if those people were not here illegally,” he said.
Democrats dismissed the Republicans’ accusations, with Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the panel saying “the premise of this hearing is false.”
Adams didn’t fare as poorly as his peers.Youtube/Associated Press
“We’ve got local law enforcement cooperating with the local political leadership, and it’s working,” Connolly claimed. “It’s bringing down crime rates. And the proposition that immigrants cause crime is false and, in fact, patently false.”
But other GOP firebrands wouldn’t hear of it.
“You all have blood on your hands,” erupted Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who put the mayors in the host seat with a series of “yes” or “no” questions about the fallout from their sanctuary policies.
“Do you acknowledge breaking into our country is a crime?” she asked, followed by “Do you believe its acceptable for illegals who commit heinous crimes be released back into the public instead of being detained and deported?” and “When an illegal alien rapes a woman, do you believe you’re on the right side of history?”
Toward the tail end of the hearing, Denver’s mayor hinted that despite he and his colleagues’ opposition to the Republicans’ immigration stance, the early days of the Trump admin have taken some of the pressure of his city’s budget.
“Our expenditures are down dramatically, and we’d like to see it stay that way,” Johnston said of the difference between 2024 and 2025.
The hearing comes as the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration has continued across the country, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducting raids nationwide to round-up and begin deporting illegal immigrants with criminal records.
Trump has said he intends to extend deportation to all illegal immigrants.
Both New York and Chicago have already been sued by the Trump administration over their sanctuary policies for allegedly interfering with federal deportation operations — and the president has vowed to bring legal action against other sanctuary cities.
