Four sanctuary city mayors who spent millions of state and federal taxpayer dollars to accommodate illegal immigrants denied that blocking federal agents from deporting criminal migrants violated federal law at a committee hearing Wednesday.
Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform committee grilled Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and New York City Mayor Eric Adams in a hearing Wednesday.
The mayors defended restrictions they approved that prevented local authorities from cooperating with detainer and deportation requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for illegal immigrants that committed crimes.
The ordinance prevented local officials from arresting, detaining, or continuing to detain illegal foreign nationals subject to an administrative warrant, as well as restricted city agencies from sharing information about an individual’s immigration status with federal immigration authorities.
As of September, ICE said there are 662,566 illegal immigrants with criminal histories living free in the United States.
Despite those recent pivots, Adams insisted during the hearing that the city’s code provisions, which prohibit local law enforcement and city employees from honoring ICE immigration detainer requests or providing them information, violated federal law.
“Federal law did not allow me to stop buses from entering New York City. State law required me to provide all in our city with housing and meals, and to educate children. City law makes it unlawful to collaborate with ICE for civil enforcement,” Adams said.
New York City has spent over $6.9 billion in taxpayer dollars to accommodate illegal immigrants over the last four years, according to Adams.
Throughout the border crisis, Democratic mayors nationwide called on the Biden administration to provide federal funding to compensate their cities for housing, feeding and providing a range of free social services to illegal border crossers at the taxpayer’s expense, The Center Square reported.
