Boston mayor grilled as misinformation flies at sanctuary cities hearing
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From left, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and David J. Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute. Photo: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
A congresswoman says she plans to make criminal referrals to the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and three other mayors of so-called sanctuary cities.
Why it matters: Boston leaders view the city's policy restricting police from helping with civil — not criminal — immigration enforcement as a stance welcoming people of all backgrounds and fostering trust between residents and police.
- But to GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill, it's an act of obstruction against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
Driving the news: When they weren't fighting among themselves, congressional members Wednesday grilled the mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York over policies restricting how police interact with ICE agents on civil immigration violations.
- Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican congresswoman from Florida, accused the mayors of "harming the American people" and said she planned to refer them to the DOJ for investigation.
State of play: The biggest question raised around the legality of sanctuary policies pointed to the U.S. Code.
- Several congressional members pointed to a section stating that notwithstanding other legal provisions, a government official can't restrict another official or entity from "sending to or receiving from" federal immigration agency information about someone's citizenship or immigration status.
- Critics say these cities' policies fly in the face of the U.S. Code.
Zoom in: The Trust Act in Boston restricts police from being deputized as ICE agents, asking people about their immigration status and detaining someone only because of a civil detainer request from ICE.
- The local law does not restrict police from working with ICE and other agencies on investigating, enforcing or detaining criminal suspects, but it requires "reasonable suspicion."
- Nor does it prevent police from responding to certain ICE agents' requests about someone's criminal history or citizenship status as understood by the city elections commission.
- The Trust Act also says it doesn't restrict any government agency from complying with the U.S. code section Republican lawmakers cited, noted Sarang Sekhavat, a lawyer and political director of the MIRA Coalition.
Reality check: Even without the Trust Act, Boston police can't hold immigrants only on civil ICE detainers because it's considered a violation of due process under state case law.
What they're saying: Roni Amit, an assistant professor of immigration law at UMass Law, says local and state police can't impede ICE, but federal laws don't require them to cooperate with the agency.
- "I don't know that they're trained in immigration law or necessarily qualified to determine someone's immigration status," Amit tells Axios.
The Immigrant Legal Resource Center, a pro-immigrant rights legal coalition, wrote in 2017 that local sanctuary city laws don't violate the U.S. Code because it doesn't say local governments can't bar police from asking people about immigration status.
- Instead, it bars policies "limiting sharing immigration status information," the organization wrote.
Friction point: The hearing was filled with sweeping political statements from Republicans and Democrats and inaccurate statements.
- Republican lawmakers described immigrants, particularly undocumented immigrants, as criminals, despite Boston's falling violent crime rate.
- U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, called the infamous Tsarnaev brothers illegal aliens. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was an asylum seeker and later a citizen, while his brother was a legal permanent resident.
- U.S. Rep. James Comer, the committee chair and a Kentucky Republican, claimed Wu said Boston police never turn over foreign-born suspects to ICE. She said Boston police will cooperate with ICE when criminal charges are involved or when there's a judicial warrant.
Plus: Some lawmakers claimed immigrants charged with crimes, including a suspect in the rape of a child, were allowed to run free in Boston.
- "That is not what's happening in Boston," Wu said.
- No one mentioned the suspect by name, but one of the last high-profile arrests was of a Guatemalan national charged with raping a minor in Middlesex County, north of Boston.
- ICE agents picked him up in Lowell after he was released from Middlesex County court with an ankle monitor.