In a heartless show of cruelty, U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida, said Wednesday she will push for a criminal investigation into the humanitarian aid four U.S. mayors provided to refugees and other immigrants who were bussed to their cities beginning in 2022.
Luna said during the congressional hearing on sanctuary cities that she wasn’t trying to “bully” the mayors, but her actions will give every person in this country pause before they offer charity and care for the downtrodden and poor with questionable legal immigration status.
The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform called in the mayors of Denver, Boston, Chicago and New York to answer questions about sanctuary policies intended to prevent local law enforcement from participating in immigration enforcement.
The more than five-hour-long hearing highlighted all the absurdities of America’s broken immigration system from threatening to prosecute mayors who kept people from freezing to death to forcing ICE agents to chase someone just released from jail around a parking lot when local officers could have just handed the individual over.
Luna wants to criminalize the care Denver provided to refugees from Venezuela and immigrants from other parts of Central and South America by defining it as “harboring.”
The law – Title 8 Section 1324 – defines harboring as someone who knowingly “conceals harbors or shields from detection” someone who is in the U.S. in violation of immigration law.
The intent of that law is not to prevent people such as Denver Mayor Mike Johnston from opening cold-weather shelters for those who arrived in the city beginning in the winter of 2022. Furthermore, Johnston’s administration believed so strongly that the immigrants it assisted came here legally after making contact with border patrol, it helped thousands of them file for asylum and get legal work permits.
Did some of those who stayed in shelters cross the southern border with no intent of claiming asylum? Of course, and tragically, some of those individuals went on to commit crimes as members of the Tren de Aragua gang. But Denver did not knowingly shelter those individuals. The city merely offered life-saving space on the floors of recreation centers to anyone who was in need. Later, city officials helped people find apartments or other short-term housing solutions. The intent of finding people housing was never to shield them from deportation. The immigrant camps that were forming were unsafe and unsanitary and were harming our communities.
Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, a Democrat from New Mexico, summed up Luna’s accusations well. “It’s total bull(expletive),” she said after thanking the mayors for their service.
Amid all the silly theater on display at Wednesday’s congressional hearing on sanctuary cities, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, brought substance and nuance to the conversation, which was supposed to focus on municipal policies around deportation and detention.
Jordan asked Denver Mayor Mike Johnston about an incident a few days ago when Denver Sheriff’s deputies released Abraham Gonzalez, who had been in jail for almost a year, to immigration officials waiting in the parking lot for him. Jordan wanted to know why Denver didn’t just hand the criminal – arrested in Denver for aggravated assault – directly over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, given that ICE had a lawful warrant.
According to a news release from city officials, Gonzalez ran from the ICE agents, forcing them to wrestle him to the ground. Jordan said one agent was assaulted, and one deployed a Taser.
Jordan wanted to know why ICE officers couldn’t have just entered the jail to get Gonzalez in a safe and secure transfer.
“That’s how stupid your policy is,” Jordan said.
He has a point.
Johnston said he has reached out to ICE to see if there is a better way to hand over people for whom ICE has a lawful detainer or deportation order.
This is the true debate about sanctuary cities. The question is to what degree city and state officials should assist federal officers in enforcing immigration laws.
Some of the answers to these questions are easy – police officers should not be asking residents if they are U.S. citizens as part of their work to keep Coloradans safe. Police officers have a hard enough job enforcing Colorado’s criminal statute without also having to be up-to-date with what immigrants from what countries who arrived on what dates have been granted Temporary Protected Status. Also, Denver should allow ICE agents into their facilities when handing over a person for deportation to avoid a wild chase through the parking lot where someone could get hurt.
But some sticky questions remain. Should Denver hold suspects past their release date based on an ICE request that isn’t backed by a warrant or lawful deportation order? Some judges have ruled that is unconstitutional.
Sanctuary cities – like Denver, Chicago, Boston and New York – have said they will not hold individuals for ICE beyond the court-ordered release date. The name “sanctuary” is a misnomer. Police and sheriffs aren’t offering illegal immigrants sanctuary from federal law enforcement, but they are refusing to violate the rights of individuals. Once ICE has a lawful order to deport or detain someone, then Johnston made it clear Denver officials will notify ICE of the date and time of release and have done so successfully more than 1,200 times since he was in office.
U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, a Republican from Wisconsin, asked the mayors testifying whether they supported the U.S. having and enforcing immigration laws and whether everyone who violates those immigration laws should be deported.
Johnston didn’t answer the question, but he should have.
U.S. immigration law has been failing for so long as to have been rendered unenforceable. Deporting the more than 10 million individuals whose only crime is a misdemeanor immigration offense would tear apart families and upend peaceful communities.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu gave a succinct answer: “I do not support mass deportations.”
Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight, quickly responded: “I don’t think anyone is calling for mass deportations.”
President Donald Trump promised Americans the night before the hearings that he is requesting funding from Congress to “complete the largest deportation operation in American history, larger even than current record holder President Dwight D. Eisenhower.”
That threat is why Colorado and Johnston are right to keep an arms-length distance between ICE operations and city and state law enforcement efforts. Trump may have the power to round up and deport people who have lived in America for decades and contributed to our communities with no legal problems other than their immigration violations, but Coloradans don’t have to support him.
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Originally Published: March 5, 2025 at 2:08 PM MST
