Sanctuary mayors blame Trump for scaring immigrants

Facing increasing pressure from Washington, sanctuary city mayors came to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to defend themselves, insisting their refusal to fully cooperate with federal immigration agents and officers makes their communities better.

The mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York said they must deal with whoever arrives inside their boundaries, regardless of their legal status, and that means delivering education, emergency medical care and safe communities.

Asking about their immigration status — or, for some of the cities, cooperating with federal deportation authorities — would ruin their ability to deliver those services, the mayors said.

“This federal administration is making hard-working, taxpaying, God-fearing residents afraid to live their lives,” said Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. “A city that’s scared is not a city that’s safe. A land ruled by fear is not a land that’s free.”

“We don’t think it’s relevant to know someone’s status when they come into a public library to check out a book or if they come to the hospital for services or come to register their child for school,” said Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. “It just scares people away.”

He said the fastest-growing church in his city went from 700 parishioners down to 5 after the administration relaxed standards on where deportation arrests can be made.

Republicans accused the mayors of shielding violent criminals.

“You all have blood on your hands,” said Rep. Nancy Mace, South Carolina Republican.

The cities have become a focal point in the immigration debate as Democrats — who control all four jurisdictions — complain about President Trump’s more aggressive approach to enforcement.

He, in turn, has accused the sanctuaries of shielding dangerous criminals by refusing to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the government’s deportation agency.

The mayors said they don’t believe their policies violate federal law, which bars state and local governments from restricting information-sharing on immigration matters with the feds.

“We comply with all laws, local, state and federal,” said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, Florida Republican, said that was a misreading of the law. She said she would refer the mayors to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution.

“I do not think you guys are bad people but I think you are ideologically misled,” she said.

The mayors’ cities were all targets of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s busing scheme, which took tens of thousands of illegal immigrants caught and released into Texas by the Biden administration and shipped them to sanctuary cities.

The mayors complained about that, saying they had no notice and had to scramble.

Rep. Byron Donalds, Florida Republican, wondered why they hadn’t approached President Biden to ask him to shut down the border to stop the flow.

“Only when it showed up on your doorstep did you get upset,” the congressman said.

New York Mayor Eric Adams, who did complain about the Biden border numbers, has recently made overtures to the Trump administration to work on immigration enforcement.

He said his city has spent $6.9 billion to accommodate the migrants from 2022 to 2024 — money that could have been spent helping schoolchildren whose education suffered during the pandemic or to improve the city’s mental health system.

Mr. Johnston said Denver spent $79 million on the migrants. Mayor Brandon Johnson said Chicago spent 1% of his budget, but he couldn’t say what that amount was.

And Ms. Wu said her city doesn’t have a figure because “we don’t ask about immigration status.”

When Mr. Donalds criticized that, she fired back: “The city of Boston is sick of having people outside of Boston telling us what to do.”

The mayors repeatedly conflated legal and illegal immigrants, celebrating the accomplishments of the former as proof that the country needs the latter.

Ms. Wu said one in five players on the Boston Red Sox’ recent championship teams were immigrants, as was all but one of the Boston University faculty to hold a Nobel Prize.

Rep. Michael Cloud called that a “linguistic shell game.”

“No one’s asking you to go and round up criminal aliens. We are asking you to take people that are already in your custody and hand them over to legal federal law enforcement,” the Texas Republican said.

Some of the mayors were hinky about using the term “sanctuary” to describe themselves.

“Boston is a safe city,” insisted Ms. Wu.

Mr. Johnston also refused the sanctuary characterization. He said his city has complied with 1,226 deportation “detainer” requests by notifying ICE when someone in local custody is about to be released. ICE can be on hand to pick them up, the mayor said.

“What we do not do is hold someone beyond their release date,” he said.

Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, challenged him, pointing to an incident last week in which Denver gave ICE an hour’s notice before releasing a Venezuelan with a lengthy criminal record. Denver sheriff’s deputies also refused to turn him over inside the jail so the ICE officers had to wait on the street, where the illegal immigrant assaulted the officers. ICE had to use Tasers to subdue him.

“That is how stupid sanctuary policies are,” Mr. Jordan said.

But Rep. Rashida Tlaib suggested the blame lies with the ICE officers.

“Six of them couldn’t take this guy,” she said. “Doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Mr. Johnston said the release to the streets is a requirement of his city ordinance. But he said he’s seen the video of the encounter and he will “make adjustments” if he finds they are needed.

Chicago refuses even the notification, Mr. Johnson said. He said his city will only cooperate when there’s a criminal warrant. That’s not an option in regular immigration enforcement, which is a civil matter.

The mayors said they have driven crime down even as their immigration numbers rose.