A U.S. congressional committee is investigating the sanctuary city policies of Boston and three other cities, inviting their mayors to testify at a hearing in Washington next month.
Mayor Michelle Wu and the mayors of New York City, Chicago and Denver each received invitations to the Feb. 11 hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, with Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., referring to the four cities as standing “out in their abject failure to comply with federal law.”
Sanctuary cities and other sanctuary jurisdictions limit how much their employees can work with federal immigration authorities working to deport undocumented immigrants.
Along with Wu’s presence at the hearing, Comer requested documents and city communications involved in the policy.
“In addition to the efforts of the Trump Administration to ensure federal immigration enforcement can proceed unimpeded, Congress must determine whether further legislation is necessary to enhance border security and public safety. It is imperative that federal immigration law is enforced and that criminal aliens are swiftly removed from our communities,” Comer wrote in his letter to the four mayors.
NBC10 Boston reached out to Wu’s office for comment, and to see if she would be able to travel by the date of the hearing, which will be less than one month after she gave birth to her third child.
“We are proud that Boston is the safest major city in the United States,” a city spokesperson said in a statement to NBC10 Boston. “We have received the letter and are reviewing it.”
Leaders of sanctuary cities are wondering what a second Trump term will bring. Somerville, Massachusetts, was poised to sign a resolution reconfirming its status as a sanctuary city. Plus, NBC10 Boston political commentator Sue O’Connell shares her thoughts on what the Trump administration may mean for Republican governors’ policy of busing migrants to sanctuary cities.
Boston is one of several sanctuary cities in Massachusetts, under a local policy that dates back over a decade. Wu defended it after Trump’s re-election, having campaigned on the promise of an immigration crackdown that now appears to be materializing in the city and across the country in the first week of his second term.
“We know that the fear of someone who might be living, coming from an immigrant family, not then reporting crimes or not speaking out about different issues, actually then makes the entire community less safe,” Wu said in November.
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