By JONATHAN ALLEN Reuters
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Mayors of four of the largest cities in the U.S. appeared before lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday to defend their so-called “sanctuary city” laws, which restrict local officials in helping enforce federal immigration regulations.

The Republicans who lead the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have long criticized such laws, as has U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican who returned to the White House in January promising to deport more unauthorized immigrants, including asylum seekers, than his predecessors.

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In opening remarks, Committee Chairman James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, told the mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York City, all Democrats, that Congress should vote against sending even “a single penny” of federal funding to sanctuary cities.

“These reckless sanctuary policies also force federal immigration officers to go into local communities to apprehend criminal illegal aliens,” Comer said. “If sanctuary cities were to simply communicate and work with federal immigration authorities, then federal agents could arrest criminal illegal aliens in a secure environment like a state or local jail.”

The mayors defended the laws as making all their residents safer, even as lawmakers on the committee, which is known for its sometimes combative hearings, interrupted some answers that went beyond a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. State and municipal officials have said the U.S. Constitution’s Tenth Amendment prevents the U.S. government from commandeering local officials to enforce federal law.

All the mayors said they have always and will always honor criminal arrest warrants issued by courts.

The specifics of sanctuary laws vary from city to city, and some have been on the books for decades, but they are generally intended to afford migrants similar due-process rights as those of citizens.

Ranking Member Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia, said sanctuary city laws are “in full compliance of federal law.”

“They do not obstruct ICE from carrying out its duties,” Connolly said, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, adding that local police, not federal agents, were in the best position to ensure public safety.

New York Mayor Eric Adams has said he is willing to help with Trump’s deportation efforts as he tries to get Trump to dismiss a federal criminal indictment charging him with corruption. Some Republicans questioned Adams, a Democrat, more gently than they did the other mayors, while at least three Democrats asked Adams if, as some federal prosecutors have alleged, the mayor had struck an improper agreement with the Trump administration to escape prosecution.

“There’s no deal, there’s no quid pro quo, and I did nothing wrong,” Adams replied to Representative Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California, who also called on Adams to resign.