On Wednesday, March 5th, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee called Eric Adams of New York, Mike Johnston of Denver, Brandon Johnson of Chicago, and Michelle Wu of Boston to testify in front of Congress about one of America’s hottest political topics: immigration.
These four mayors have a few things in common. Most notably, they are all Democrats hailing from Democrat-governed states. More importantly, they’re all from well-known cities that saw Texas Governor Gregg Abbott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis send immigrants, by the literal busload, with more than 100,000 of them pouring into those locations from Texas alone.
If it sounds like a bad game of politics, well, that’s because it is. And if you were expecting nothing short of a spectacle, the far-right delivered.
As expected, the most notorious of the far-right representatives were present and ready to turn the Capitol into a circus. There was the promiscuous Lauren Boebert, the vile and lie-spewing Marjorie Taylor Greene, and the abuse-enabling Jim Jordan. Each ready with their usual slate of weird and partisan questions for these mayors.
Boebert asked asinine questions and then used the event to send out a fundraiser before the hearing was even over. Greene talked about Laken Riley, who was murdered in the Republican-governed state of Georgia, not any of the four cities represented at the hearing. And Jordan, who at least picked an individual from one of these cities, grilled Denver’s Johnston on Abraham Gonzalez, an alleged gang member who was actually detained by Denver Police and handed over to ICE.
But it was Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina who was hoping to be featured on Fox News the most, with her frequent far-right soundbites coming at the four mayors in rapid succession.
Mace’s questions for these qualified mayors, who have governed some of the country’s largest municipalities, included, “When an illegal immigrant rapes a woman, do you believe you’re on the right side of history?” and “Do you hate Donald Trump more than you love your country?” and “Do you love illegal aliens more than you love your fellow countrymen?”
Questions that she intertwined with insults towards all four mayors, without giving them much room to answer and giving them no real reason to even be present when slinging mud such as that.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna from Florida might have taken home the award for Bonehead of the Day when she announced plans to “criminally” refer all four mayors to the U.S. Department of Justice for investigation. An announcement that the United States Attorney General Pam Bondi, one of Trump’s most loyal cronies, was likely salivating at, but in reality, had no binding.
None of that mattered anyway. Because in the end, there are two big points that Republicans are dredging up and are unequivocally wrong about. That was proven when the Republicans questioning these mayors actually remained on topic: crime and the mayors themselves breaking the law.
Every lie Republican representatives told was clearly and factually disputed. Every news story they tried to quote from 2020 or prior was met with clear and concise data showing violent crime rates dropping across three of the four cities (Boston, Denver, New York).
Not that it will matter when the soundbites go out, as the Republican voters will hear what they want to hear.
And then there’s the matter of these four breaking federal law.
“I don’t think anyone in this room could define what ‘sanctuary city’ is,” Johnston wisely stated at one point. He stood defiant, knowing the threat to jail him and his colleagues, along with the threat to reduce or even stop federal funding to their states, has no real ground. Not that Trump and his allies need ground to justify their actions. That is because Johnston knows there’s no legal definition for sanctuary city policies, and these municipalities, although more defiant than some about overreach, do cooperate with federal officials when necessary.
If anything, Rep. Luna should be directing her threat of recommending charges at the real criminal officials in this matter, Governor Abbott and Governor DeSantis. Both governors squandered their taxpayers’ dollars by turning people’s lives into a political spectacle as they sent these human beings to these cities being questioned.
Denver, along with the other three cities represented today, has its issues. Denver’s Johnston has seen a booming city face unprecedented growth, a forced influx of immigration, and a stalling economy that has caused economic and financial hardships. New York Mayor Adams is likely a criminal, but for an entirely separate reason. And Chicago continues to see corruption while Boston has many issues a large melting pot tends to have.
But in this situation, not just at the Capitol today, but through it all, these mayors and their administrations have shown compassion and care towards a large number of individuals that had become pawns in Republican officials’ games.
That compassion is something Boebert, Greene, and Jordan will never have. It’s something Abbott and DeSantis won’t learn. And it’s something that couldn’t get into Trump even with an enema full of it.
When Republicans continue to use people’s lives as political fodder, whether legally here or not, one has to hope that those on the far right who claim they have Christian values actually stand up and display those values. Because we know those they are voting for won’t.
Political Geekery 