A House committee questioned Mayor Eric Adams and three other leaders of so-called sanctuary cities on Wednesday on their willingness to cooperate with Trump administration immigration policy — but Republicans generally focused their ire on Boston, Denver and Chicago.
Yet while Adams was spared the toughest questioning by GOP members of the House Oversight Committee, it was Democrats who pressed him about the federal corruption case against him and any deal he may have with the White House.
“Are you selling out New Yorkers to save yourself from prosecution?” asked Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California, who came armed with props including an enlarged photo of Danielle Sassoon’s resignation letter, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York who resigned rather than rescind the charges against Adams.
Another blown-up photo displayed while Garcia spoke showed Adams sitting beside so-called border czar Tom Homan for an appearance on “Fox & Friends” last month.
“There’s no deal. There’s no quid pro quo, and I did nothing wrong,” Adams shot back.
Adams faced a committee alongside other Democratic mayors — Michelle Wu of Boston, Brandon Johnson of Chicago and Mike Johnston of Denver — and David Bier, the director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, who described President Donald Trump’s immigration policy as “chaotic” and “flagrantly unconstitutional.”
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Virginia) asked three of the mayors — not Adams — if Trump policy would undermine public safety and they all said yes. He then launched into a series of questions at Adams regarding his potential deal with the Trump administration, where he prodded Adams repeatedly about whether he’d ever discussed his corruption case with Trump or other members of his administration.
“This case is in front of Judge [Dale] Ho and as a deference to Judge Ho, he is going to determine the outcome of this case,” Adams answered repeatedly, refusing to say whether or not he’d ever discussed the matter with the administration.
Later, Rep. William Timmons (R-South Carolina) re-iterated the claim, which there is no evidence, that the federal case against Adams is retaliation for Adams speaking against the Biden administration’s handling of the asylum seeker crisis.
At the hearing’s opening, Republican Congressmember James Comer from Kentucky, the chair of the committee, praised Adams for his previous remarks expressing concern over some sanctuary city policies.
“Of the witnesses today, you have publicly stated you were willing to work with ICE on detaining the most criminal illegals,” Comer said. “I want to publicly thank you for that.”
New York’s mayor stands out from the others by having recently aligned himself with Trump and refusing to openly criticize some of the most controversial parts of the president’s agenda.
And for over a year Adams has called into question parts of the city’s sanctuary protections, a series of local laws and executive orders which limit local authorities ability to coordinate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on most matters unless there’s a federal judicial warrant.
In his opening remarks, the mayor defended the existing policies in New York City and clarified potential confusion on their purpose.
“A sanctuary city classification does not mean our city will ever be a safe haven for violent criminals,” Adams said in his opening remarks.
“It also does not give New York City the authority to violate federal immigration law.”
Hinting at Criminal Consequences for Mayors
Republican lawmakers went after Johnson, Johnston and Wu, focusing on high-profile crimes committed by immigrants in their cities.
Adams was however stumped by a question from Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona), who asked if he agreed with the supremacy clause, which allows federal law to take precedence over state law.
“This is way over my head, I failed law,” Adams quipped.
Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, later asked a series of loaded yes-or-no questions of the mayors, including if they hated “the president more than you love your country” and were willing to go to jail for violating federal law.
“I’m not gonna violate federal law so I don’t have to worry about that,” Adams said.
She was among several Republican lawmakers who suggested that the mayors were violating federal law and could be subject to arrest.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida) said she was referring the mayors to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation, saying they “harbor” undocumented aliens.
Comer said at the start of the hearing that the sanctuary polices “only create sanctuary for criminals.” Ahead of the hearing, he said that “state and local governments that refuse to comply with federal immigration enforcement efforts should not receive a penny of federal funding.”
Adams did defend protections for undocumented immigrant children to attend school, and for others to seek medical care and speak freely to police if they are victims of or witnesses to a crime.
“Immigrant New Yorkers, including those who are undocumented, pay billions of dollars in taxes and contribute billions more in spending power to our economy,” he said. “Immigrants also play a vital role in the functioning of the city.”
The Trump administration took back $80 million in federal funds from New York City accounts that were used to reimburse spending on newly-arrived migrants, which prompted the city to sue.
Last Friday, Trump administration lawyers fired back, claiming that New York City allowed housing for “illegal aliens… to be taken over by a terrorist organization.”
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