Boston Mayor Michelle Wu expressed confidence heading right into a Congressional oversight committee listening to on sanctuary metropolis insurance policies that she says has been portrayed as a “showdown” by the Republican-led Home panel.
If a hype video launched final week by the U.S. Home Committee on Oversight and Authorities Reform is any indication of what’s to return, Wu could also be in for a grilling when she seems on the Wednesday morning listening to in Washington, D.C.
“We have already seen some materials put out in advance that seems designed to try to heighten interest and frame it as some kind of showdown or dramatic moment,” Wu instructed reporters Monday.
“I am going to represent the city of Boston, the amazing people who live here, who work here, who are making our community wonderful,” the mayor mentioned. “I’m there, no matter how challenging the circumstances, to stand up for Boston, and also to stand up for the truth, the facts of who we are.”
Wu was compelled to testify in D.C. alongside three different sanctuary metropolis mayors from Chicago, Denver and New York Metropolis, through a letter despatched to every mayor in late January by oversight committee Chair James Comer, a Kentucky Republican.
Comer’s letter said that the committee was “investigating sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States and their impact on public safety and the effectiveness of federal efforts to enforce” the nation’s “immigration laws.”
In a video accompanied by dramatic, horror-movie-style music launched final week by the Home committee, Comer elaborates on what Wu and the opposite three taking part mayors can anticipate at this week’s listening to.
“We are going to bring the mayors in, we are going to let them explain what their policies are,” Comer mentioned, “see if they can answer some questions as to who’s paying for this, who’s been in charge of this, what role their local government has played with the federal government involved.
“If they are going to continue to disobey the law, then I think we should cut as much of their federal funding as we can cut,” Comer added.
On Tuesday, Wu will be a part of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation — together with U.S. Reps. Stephen Lynch and Ayanna Pressley, Democrats who sit on the oversight committee — for a press convention in Washington, D.C.
The press convention will concentrate on the “impacts of the Trump administration’s harmful actions on communities across Massachusetts, ahead of the State of the Union Address,” based on advisories from members of the delegation.
Boston’s sanctuary standing is enshrined within the Belief Act, a 2014 native regulation that prohibits metropolis police and different departments from cooperating with federal authorities on civil immigration detainers.
MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale met with Comer final Friday to debate Mayor Wu’s upcoming testimony, Logan Trupiano, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Republican Celebration, mentioned in a press release to the Herald.
Trupiano mentioned Carnevale highlighted paperwork and “serious incident” studies from the state’s migrant-family shelter program that MassGOP obtained through a public information request earlier this yr.
The Herald obtained the identical incident studies, encompassing 1000’s of pages of studies from the Massachusetts Govt Workplace of Housing and Livable Communities, through its personal information request and attraction.
The paperwork uncovered incidents of kid rape, home violence, brawls, drunkenness, medication and extra within the emergency housing shelter system, the Herald reported final January.
Trupiano mentioned the studies Carnevale shared with Comer throughout their assembly supplied “key information for the discussion.”
“With Mayor Wu shielded from scrutiny by her close ties to the Democratic supermajority in the Legislature and Boston City Council, we look forward to seeing her face tough questions for a change,” the MassGOP spokesman mentioned.
Wu, in her remarks to reporters, indicated that she plans to defend the town’s public security document at this week’s listening to. The mayor has touted Boston’s low murder price final yr as proof that the Hub is the “safest major city” within the nation.
“Some people are trying to paint the story of cities where immigrants live as being, quote, unquote, dangerous places, a threat to others, when in fact, we are proof of the opposite,” Wu mentioned. “We are one of the most diverse cities.
“Twenty-eight percent of our residents were born in another country, and we are the safest major city in the country,” the mayor added.
A Bloomberg report that quoted S&P International Rankings final month highlighted spending from the three different sanctuary cities collaborating within the listening to, because it pertains to the immigration disaster and asylum seekers.
Per the report, in fiscal yr 2023, New York Metropolis spent $1.45 billion on migrant prices, and expects to spend a mixed $9.1 billion housing migrants in FY24 and FY25. Chicago and Denver spent a respective $275 million and $46 million in FY2023, per Bloomberg.
Boston was not featured within the report and a Herald request for the town’s spending on the immigration disaster was returned by Mayor Wu’s workplace with info on preparation prices for the listening to. Wu had mentioned final March that she anticipated the migrant disaster to influence the town’s price range, which she proposed a month later at $4.6 billion, however by no means obtained into specifics about precise numbers.
The prep periods included employees from the Mayor’s Workplace, Legislation Division, Boston Police and different senior advisors and leaders from the Cupboard, in addition to an exterior regulation agency, Cahill Gordon & Reindel. Town retained Cahill for a price of $950 an hour and expects to pay the agency as much as $650,000 for authorized work associated to the March 5 listening to, committee investigation, and manufacturing of associated paperwork, the mayor’s workplace mentioned.
Wu, who has tangled with President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan for months about Boston’s restricted cooperation with federal regulation enforcement and referred to as the oversight committee’s hype video “amusing” final week, seems primed for a battle heading into Wednesday’s listening to.
“Not my first rodeo,” Wu mentioned in regards to the potential for dealing with “hostile” questioning.
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