Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, told Newsmax on Thursday it was "pretty astounding" for sanctuary city mayors to come before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to "defend the indefensible" — shielding illegal immigrants from being removed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"It's very clear that lawlessness is not compassion, yet they continue to try to put these sanctuary city policies that lead to crime, that shield illegal aliens, criminal aliens, from being arrested and try to defend that kind of attitude," Cloud said on "Wake Up America." "It's just unbelievable that they continue to tout that line."
Democrat mayors Michelle Wu of Boston, Brandon Johnson of Chicago, Mike Johnston of Denver, and Eric Adams of New York came before the committee Wednesday to defend their sanctuary city policies, which they say make their cities welcoming places and which committee Republicans say have created lawless danger zones.
"It was remarkable to see the Dems try to muddy the waters, so to speak, to confuse immigration with illegal migrants coming into our country," Cloud said. "It's just unbelievable that they continue to, when the American people have spoken loud and clear, they've rejected these policies, and yet they continue to push them."
According to Cloud, the reason the four mayors went before the committee is because they each said, with the exception of Adams, that they would ignore ICE detainers to hold criminal migrants. Cloud said that cooperating with ICE and keeping illegal migrants detained until they are taken into federal custody saves taxpayers money and keeps communities and law enforcement safe.
"Every time you're heading out to arrest somebody, that's a dangerous situation," Cloud said. "And so, that the mayors are willing to continue to waste federal funds puts something on our radar, I should say, that we're going to make sure that we do everything we can. If we have to limit federal funding going to them, if they're not going to work with us, then we'll have to do that. But for them to continue to espouse these policies, even though they hurt their communities, they hurt law enforcement, it boggles the mind."
Asked about next steps following the hearing with the sanctuary city mayors, Cloud said that "the law is pretty clear."
"If you are concealing, if you are harboring, if you are shielding from detection, people who are here illegally and you know that you're doing it, that is a criminal offense," he said. "And so I asked them to make sure that they knew that was law, because if they know it's the law and they continue those bad practices, that is a criminal offense."
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