Republicans are pushing back against so-called sanctuary cities and jurisdictions as President Donald Trump ramps up plans for mass deportations.
“All of the mayors here today are actively working to harm the American people you represent,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told the mayors of four sanctuary cities during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday. “You all have blood on your hands.”
The comments, which were addressed to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, come as the Trump administration continues to push the speedy deportations of illegal immigrants that the president promised on the campaign trail.
But those efforts have been hindered by sanctuary jurisdictions, which have passed rules that limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities, most notably by not honoring U.S. Immigration Customs and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) detainer requests.
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The four mayors who testified at Wednesday’s hearing represented some of the largest sanctuary jurisdictions in the country, a policy that has generated controversy amid multiple high-profile crimes that have been committed by illegal immigrants.
“Sanctuary mayors owe the American people an explanation for city policies that jeopardize public safety and violate federal immigration law by releasing dangerous criminal illegal aliens back onto the streets,” House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said in a press release before the hearing.
One sanctuary jurisdiction that was not represented at the Wednesday hearing was California, which in 2018 passed “Trump-proof” legislation aimed at protecting the state’s illegal residents from federal immigration authorities.
San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond told Fox News Digital that the law, SB 54, has severely limited what local California jurisdictions can do to fight back against illegal immigration.
“They can’t do anything about it,” Desmond said of the state’s local law enforcement agencies under SB 54, adding that even if officers see suspected illegal immigrants coming ashore in boats, they are forbidden from helping enforce federal immigration laws.
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“That’s been hindering California as far as law enforcement and immigration enforcement,” Desmond said.
Desmond noted that some California jurisdictions have even gone further than SB 54, putting additional barriers in place to hinder immigration enforcement.
“My colleagues in December voted to not allow our law enforcement in our jails to be able to notify ICE directly that this person who has been convicted and tried and sentenced and now in our jails is here illegally,” Desmond said.
“They now have to get a warrant from a state or federal judge to turn anybody over to ICE,” he added, noting that the rule is “just another obstacle blocking law enforcement.”
“My Democratic colleagues are trying to put more obstacles in the way of actually reporting criminals to ICE,” Desmond said.
Nevertheless, Trump border czar Tom Homan has vowed to fight back against sanctuary cities, saying last month that federal authorities are “going to keep coming” no matter what road blocks are put in the administration’s way.
“They’re not going to stop us,” he said during an appearance on Fox News. “It’s less efficient to arrest a bad guy in public where he’s hiding from us, and we’re trying to arrest him on his turf rather than arrest them in a county jail, which is where we should be arresting them. It takes one agent to arrest the bad guy in the county jail. It takes a whole team to find somebody that doesn’t want to be found in the neighborhoods, but we’re going to keep doing this.”
That effort is being boosted by Trump’s GOP allies in Congress, who on Wednesday sought to highlight the dangers posed by sanctuary policies.
“Every crime committed by someone in the United States illegally is a crime that would not have been committed. Laken Riley, Ruby 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,” Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., told the four mayors. “They were given safe harbor.”
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