Boston Mayor Michelle Wu made one other high-profile look Tuesday on The Every day Present the place she bashed the Trump administration’s “false narrative” that immigrants usually tend to commit crime after lots of of ICE Boston arrests.
Wu’s 15-minute interview on the widely-watched late-night Comedy Central present continues her time within the nationwide highlight. The primary-term mayor has emerged as a key face of the progressive resistance pushing again on the federal authorities’s mass deportation effort, which has targeted on giant sanctuary cities like Boston.
“I remember all the time growing up, my parents would say to me and my siblings in Mandarin, when you grow up, get a job that pays well, is very stable and won’t get you in trouble,” Wu, who grew up in an immigrant household, mentioned. “So now I’ve been dragged before Congress, threatened with criminal prosecution.
After pausing to join in on the crowd’s laughter at her remarks, Wu said, “But at the end of the day, this is where it matters. All of the programs that we’ve put in place, to keep the streets clean, to make our schools actually supportive for our students, to protect people in our communities in a really scary moment.”
Earlier this month, Wu testified earlier than the Republican-led Congressional oversight committee alongside three different big-city mayors as a part of the committee’s probe of sanctuary cities and their impacts on public security. A Home Republican referred Wu and two different mayors to the Division of Justice for legal investigation.
Wu in her State of the Metropolis handle final week vowed that Boston would proceed to guard immigrants and criticized the Trump administration. Her speech drew a swift response from the White Home, which slammed Boston’s mayor as a “radical.”
On her late-night look, she made comparable remarks.
“We’re the safest city because we’re safe for everyone,” Wu mentioned. “We’re really focused on being that home for everyone, and it’s worked. So all of that buzz around whether these kinds of cities that are more welcoming for immigrants are more dangerous. It’s about a false narrative that immigrants are somehow more likely to commit crimes or cause harm, and that is just simply not true.”
ICE Boston introduced Monday that it arrested 370 “alien offenders” from March 18 to 23 in an “enhanced operation” specializing in transnational organized crime and gangs. Border czar Tom Homan mentioned the sweep pushes again at sanctuary cities.
Wu has repeatedly drawn the ire of Homan, who had beforehand vowed to carry “hell” to Boston over town’s restricted cooperation with federal immigration authorities and mentioned he personally oversaw final week’s ICE operation.
On Monday, a metropolis spokesperson mentioned Boston companions with “all levels of law enforcement to prevent crime and hold perpetrators accountable.”
Wu wasn’t requested in regards to the ICE arrests throughout her Every day Present interview, which was largely a light-hearted affair with banter over whether or not Boston or New York, the place the present is taped, is the superior metropolis.
Wu drew a loud ovation when coming into the studio for her interview, however acquired her solely boos of the night time when declaring Boston, and its sports activities groups, superior to New York Metropolis, which was roundly lambasted by the host, Ronny Chieng.
Chieng, a Malaysian comic, repeatedly expressed disbelief that Wu as an Asian-American girl might be elected mayor in a metropolis like Boston, which he mentioned is “arguably one of the most racist cities in America.”
“I still don’t understand how you got elected,” Chieng mentioned. “I mean, obviously you’re good at your job and you’re charming and all that. But that was enough for them to convince them?”
Wu, the primary girl and individual of colour to be elected mayor of town, mentioned at the moment’s Boston is “very diverse.”
“The Boston of today is a different city than a lot of people think,” Wu mentioned. “But even in the Boston of today, we have a lot of work to do, just like every city.”
Chieng additionally expressed amazement that Wu might seemingly stay common as a Democrat at a time when her celebration and its insurance policies are so unpopular within the nation. He talked about that there’s a “disconnect” at the moment between the Democratic Celebration and the “common people.”
“What advice would you give to the Democrats running now about how not to be such (expletive) losers, or connect to the people more?” Chieng mentioned.
Wu mentioned that she discovered authorities “scary” whereas rising up with immigrant dad and mom, however mentioned she bought into politics to “make a difference” in folks’s lives.
The late-night section, the place it was additionally revealed that Wu is in a gaggle chat with different Asian U.S. mayors, got here on the identical day that the mayor introduced her plans to launch her formal reelection bid, on April 5.
Wu, who acquired 64% of the vote in her first mayoral election, is searching for a second time period. She is dealing with a problem from Josh Kraft, a son of the billionaire New England Patriots proprietor Robert Kraft and longtime philanthropist.
Initially Revealed:
