Democratic mayors of 4 cities with sanctuary insurance policies to guard migrants are consulting with advisers, hiring attorneys and making ready to redact paperwork forward of a grilling by Home Republicans — hoping to keep away from the type of Capitol Hill spectacle that embarrassed three Ivy League presidents a little bit over a yr in the past.
These mayors are additionally furiously conferring with anybody they know who can supply perception and counsel about deal with the type of scrutiny that resulted within the ouster of College of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill following the late 2023 congressional listening to on antisemitism at elite faculties.
Simply as Republicans hammered Magill and others for what they noticed as condoning alleged threats to Jewish college students and college, Republican members of Congress will on Wednesday ask the mayors of New York, Chicago, Boston and Denver to defend their extra permissive immigration insurance policies towards high-profile, if remoted, episodes of violent crime by undocumented immigrants.
“I simply need to make it possible for individuals perceive that [this is] a metropolis that has been established by immigrants and migrants who have been previously enslaved,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson informed reporters in regards to the message he hopes to relay to Congress. “It’s the worldwide capital of the world, and we’re going to proceed to indicate up at our highest.”
Republicans on the Home Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee are preparing for this second, too, particularly Chair James Comer, who sat on the Training and Workforce panel that questioned Magill and different college presidents. He stated in an interview he was impressed by how Rep. Elise Stefanik, the previous schooling committee chair who President Donald Trump nominated to be U.N. ambassador, ran these proceedings.
In an indication of how significantly the Kentucky Republican is taking his personal preparations to supply the same, politically explosive occasion, he and his members final week sat down to debate immigration coverage with Stephen Miller, the White Home deputy chief of employees and the architect of a few of Trump’s most aggressive efforts to curb unlawful immigration, based on an individual granted anonymity to explain a personal assembly.
“We anticipate accountability — we anticipate the mandate that President Trump was given on the border to be carried out, and hopefully there received’t be any obstruction or opposition to the legislation,” Comer, who could run for governor in 2027, stated in an interview. “If the mayors are defending people who find themselves right here illegally, then they’re breaking the legislation.”
The ramp-up on all sides speaks to the excessive political stakes of the upcoming listening to, each for the insurance policies on the middle of the talk and the political futures of the committee chair and the 4 mayors: Johnson, Eric Adams of New York, Michelle Wu of Boston and Mike Johnston of Denver. All 4 cities have struggled to shelter and assist the inflow of migrants from the Southern border.
Adams doubtless has probably the most at stake: The Trump Division of Justice lately known as for the mayor’s felony bribery and fraud case to be dismissed, citing his cooperation on immigration enforcement. (Adams continues to disclaim the costs.) Shortly thereafter, Adams met with border czar Tom Homan and introduced he’s drafting an govt order permitting ICE brokers again into town’s Rikers Island jail advanced.
Adams has rejected criticism he’s beholden to the Trump administration and says he has his constituents’ greatest pursuits at coronary heart. Nonetheless, observers anticipate Adams — a former New York Police Division captain — shall be handled in another way than the opposite mayors, with Comer contending the New Yorker’s perspective is exclusive given his cooperation with the administration.
“He was one of many first blue metropolis mayors that was representing a sanctuary metropolis that stated, ‘wait, we can not deal with anymore. This can be a drain on our sources,’” Comer stated of Adams. “I believe that that’s what makes him a very good witness.”
Adams will search to strike a stability earlier than the committee, based on his spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus. Whereas the mayor believes within the spirit of sanctuary legal guidelines, he additionally thinks these legal guidelines at present go too far. He’s anticipated to testify that immigrants are essential to his metropolis’s success — but additionally that the “long-broken immigration system” needs to be fastened, law-abiding New Yorkers needs to be protected and violent criminals needs to be focused.
The mayor has been assembly each day along with his authorized, intergovernmental and communications groups in preparation for Wednesday’s listening to, Mamelak Altus stated. And his deputy mayor for intergovernmental affairs, Tiffany Raspberry, is the liaison to each the Oversight Committee members and the opposite mayors’ groups.
On the similar time, the distinction between Adams and the opposite Democratic mayors might pose a political danger for the three extra progressive metropolis leaders — together with Johnston of Denver, who stated in November he was keen to go to jail over his opposition to Trump’s mass deportation plans.
In preparation for the listening to, Johnston has conferred with Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Diana DeGette — each Colorado Democrats — for tips about showing earlier than Congress. He additionally has contracted the Washington-based legal professional Dana Remus, a former White Home counsel for President Joe Biden.
The town of Denver is making ready to collect paperwork requested by federal officers, and it’s anticipated to redact data so the a whole lot of metropolis workers who’ve been concerned within the sanctuary metropolis work will not be unnecessarily focused for doing their jobs.
In the meantime, an legal professional near the Chicago mayor’s workplace hopes to see Johnson follow his speaking factors as Republicans could attempt to pit Adams as “the great compliant mayor and Johnson because the deviant.” The legal professional was granted anonymity to debate inner planning.
Johnson has related with former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor who has expertise working with GOP elected officers — together with representing congressional Republicans in two high-profile redistricting instances. He’s additionally working with town’s company counsel, Mary Richardson-Lowry, on how to answer legally delicate questions, and town has contracted with exterior counsel.
Wu, the Boston mayor, has obtained steering upfront of the listening to from Rep. Stephen Lynch, a fellow Massachusetts Democrat who sits on the Oversight Committee. He known as after Comer first prolonged the invitation for Wu and others to testify, Lynch stated in an interview with a neighborhood station.
The story Wu is more likely to inform is that of her metropolis’s plummeting homicide price. Boston earned nationwide consideration for the drop in homicides final yr, and the variety of taking pictures victims and situations of gunfire have additionally ticked down of late. That has prompted Wu to usually tout Boston as “the most secure main metropolis within the nation.”
Wednesday will reveal whether or not the mayors’ preparations are a match for Comer, whose group has been constructing anticipation for the massive occasion. Final week, Oversight Committee Republicans launched a dramatized video, akin to a film trailer, previewing the listening to, depicting a Structure burning to disclose the faces of the 4 Democratic mayors. Ominous music performs, and Comer vows to chop federal funding for individuals who fail to cooperate with U.S. legislation.
However in a latest interview, Comer maintained that making a made-for-TV second was not his purpose. He was there when Stefanik requested these college presidents whether or not calling for the genocide of Jews violated their codes of conduct — a “substantive query,” Comer recalled, including that not often do substantive questions go viral.
“Initially, our purpose is to get the reality, we imagine in transparency,” Comer stated. “My job isn’t leisure. My job is to get the reality to the American individuals.”
