In heated testimony on Capitol Hill last week, ‘sanctuary’ city mayors tried to defend their lawless and dangerous policies. Perhaps the most aggressive of these politicians was Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who was indignant in her interactions with Congressional Republicans. She demanded that they enact a laundry list of leftist policies — from gun control, to ‘comprehensive’ immigration reform, to more spending on social services. During one feisty exchange, she claimed that sanctuary policies and declining to check immigration status helps keep Boston “safe.” That was her quote, under oath. (This is the same woman who recently went out of her way to express condolences to the family of a knife-wielding maniac who was taken out by an off-duty police officer).
Here’s the quote from the hearing:
Rep Byron Donalds (R-FL): In the city of Boston, how much did you spend [on illegal immigrants]?
Boston Mayor Wu: We don’t ask about immigration status in delivering citizen services.
Donalds: You don’t ask about how much your city has spent on illegal immigration, are you out of your mind?
Wu: We don’t distinguish between immigration status and…
Donalds: Do you manage your budget or not, Mayor Wu?
Wu: That is how we keep our city safe.
The clip is available online, too. She has boasted that “we don’t enforce federal immigration law,” which is true. Boston bans its authorities from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement, even against violent criminal illegal immigrants. She’s been downplaying unpleasant realities, accusing Fox of sensationalizing coverage, and taking shots at Border Czar Tom Homan. Melugin and Homan have their own thoughts. The Fox correspondent tweeted, “Mayor Wu should spend less time worrying about Fox News and more time pondering why international fugitives, murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and Haitian gang members with 17 convictions in two years have decided to set up shop in her sanctuary city & roam freely until ICE arrest.” Homan questioned the mayor’s definition of safety: “I know nine children that would disagree with her. Nine sets of parents whose children were sexually assaulted, raped, by people who are not supposed to be here.”
These are the sorts of characters Boston ICE has picked up since the Trump administration took office, no thanks to Mayor Wu and her city’s anti-enforcement, pro-illegal immigrant policies. Here’s one from earlier this week:
ICE says the sanctuary city of Boston released a Dominican illegal alien into the community who was charged with indecent assault and gross lewdness after an arrest by Boston PD. ICE says they attempted to place a detainer on him, but Boston was “noncooperative”, so ICE tracked him down and arrested him in Dorchester, MA. The illegal alien had previously been caught and released at the border by the Biden administration in June 2022.
Protecting this guy keeps Boston “safe,” you see. This one was published the day before yesterday:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Wilbert Jean-Baptiste, a 38-year-old convicted murderer wanted in Haiti following a prison escape, Feb. 4. Jean-Baptiste was initially apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol on Oct. 31, 2023, after illegally entering the United States near Brownsville, Texas. He subsequently was released with a notice to appear before an immigration judge with the Justice Department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review. The judge issued an order for his removal to Haiti on May 17, 2024. However, Jean-Baptiste remained in the U.S., pending additional immigration proceedings. ICE was notified by the Haitian government on Feb. 3, that Jean-Baptiste was wanted for homicide and had escaped from a Haitian prison and arrested him in Massachusetts…
What a coincidence that he made his way to a sanctuary jurisdiction like Massachusetts. Wu’s policies thwart and obstruct enforcement against convicted murderer illegal immigrants like this — and therefore actively attract them. It’s what “keeps her city safe,” she says. I’ll leave you with Wu deflecting as she’s asked whether she’d turn a child rapist illegal immigrant (we’ve seen many examples of this in her neck of the woods recently) over to ICE. Massachusetts is, in practice, a sanctuary state. Just as Mayor Wu likes it.
