DENVER (KDVR) — Republicans in Congress are grilling four cities on what’s been called “sanctuary policies.”
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston was in a hearing Wednesday morning as President Donald Trump presses ahead with his campaign of mass deportations.
Johnston’s hearing in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform started at 8 a.m. He will be in a hearing along with the mayors of Boston, Chicago and New York.
The committee is singling out these four cities because of their “abject failure to comply with federal law.”
There’s no official definition for “sanctuary policies” or “sanctuary cities,” but the terms generally describe municipalities that have limited cooperation with immigration and customs enforcement.
Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert and Rep. Gabe Evans, both Republicans, will get the chance to question Johnston during the public hearing.
During Johnston’s hearing, he said, “When buses started showing up filled with migrants, some in my city were afraid, just like I’m sure some of your constituents were afraid. They were afraid about crime and homelessness, and worried about what these new people might take away from them. I understand that fear. The truth is, people who are new to this country do good and bad, just like all of us. But there’s another truth, when those buses kept on coming, Denver made a choice as a city not to hate each other, but to help each other, not to turn on each other, but to turn to each other and see if together, we could solve a problem that felt bigger than any one of us. And that’s what we did. It wasn’t perfect, and it required sacrifice from all of us, but in the end, Denver came out stronger and closer than we were before.”
David J. Bier, director of Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute, and the minority witness of the hearing submitted a written statement.
“States should not simply agree to help the federal government with mass deportation. Even when immigrants are unable to obtain legal status, they benefit their communities, and cities have good reasons not to indiscriminately aid the federal government in removing them,” said Bier.
Each witness and members of the committee had five minutes to give statements and ask questions.
