Mayor Adams to testify in Republican-led oversight hearing on sanctuary cities

Mayor Eric Adams is set to testify before a congressional panel on Wednesday morning, in what is largely expected to be a partisan showdown over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

Democratic mayors from Boston, Chicago and Denver will join Adams in the hot seat as they testify about local sanctuary policies before the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee. The hearing will be broadcast live, starting at 10 a.m., on the committee’s YouTube channel.

The hearing comes after the committee chair, Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer, launched an investigation earlier this year into the cities’ sanctuary policies, which limit local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

It also comes as the Trump administration has said it would seek to punish local officials and governments that stand in the way of its pledge to conduct the largest “mass deportation” effort in the nation’s history. His administration sued Chicago and Illinois in February over those jurisdictions’ sanctuary protections.

“If they’re going to continue to disobey the law, then I think we should cut as much of their federal funding as we can cut,” Comer said in a video recently released by the committee.

Comer’s video portends rough treatment for the mayors. Social media posts to the committee’s X account said the mayors would be held “publicly accountable” for the policies in place in their cities. The recently released video, which is akin to a movie trailer, includes an image of the Constitution burning before revealing the faces of the four mayors.

The social media posts and video also highlight recent crimes depicting immigrants as offenders, including the case of Sebastian Zapeta, the 33-year-old Guatemalan citizen facing murder charges after allegedly lighting a woman on fire aboard the F train in Brooklyn in December.

According to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson, the agency deported Zapeta, 33, to Guatemala on June 7, 2018. He later re-entered the U.S. on an unknown date and location, and subsequently made his way to New York City, the agency said.

Adams, who took office at the start of 2022, has been critical of the city’s sanctuary city protections, which were first put in place in 1989, saying they go too far in protecting criminal offenders. He met twice with Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan. After a Feb. 13 meeting with Homan, Adams said he would issue an executive order to re-allow ICE agents back on the Rikers Island jail complex to help with criminal investigations, especially of violent offenders and gangs.

In an interview with Politico, Comer said Adams would be a “good witness,” pointing to Adams’ criticism of former President Joe Biden’s handling of the migrant crisis and the strain on the city’s finances. The city says it has accommodated over 232,000 migrants since spring 2022, at a cost of over $7 billion.

But Adams could also face questions about his federal corruption charges and the Trump administration’s efforts to dismiss them. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat and the vice ranking member of the Oversight Committee, was one of two senior Democrats who recently launched an investigation into the Justice Department's move to dismiss Adams' corruption charges.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has taken a more oppositional approach to the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, saying he’s prepared to go to jail over his opposition to Trump’s mass deportation plans.

Both Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have said in recent months that they would not cooperate with Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Wu has also rejected the assertion that Boston was teeming with criminals, claiming it’s the “safest major city in the country.”

The Center for Immigration Studies has identified over 170 cities, counties, and states that have adopted sanctuary policies.

City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak said Adams has been preparing daily for the hearing by conferring with his legal, intergovernmental, and communications teams. She said he’d discuss the work his administration has done to house the newcomers.

Mamelak said the mayor would also reiterate his appreciation of immigrant New Yorkers and speak to the need to fix the country’s broken immigration system.

“Mayor Adams believes in protecting law-abiding New Yorkers who are doing nothing more but contributing to bettering our way of life and helping our city run,” Mamelak said. “However, those who commit crimes in our city should be removed from our streets.”

Adams also addressed the upcoming hearing in his weekly question-and-answer session with reporters on Monday.

“ I just think it's unfair for cities to inherit national problems,” Adams said. “And when you do do that, you have to step up and I think that's what we did in the city. And I’m going to share that.”