Sanctuary state governors testify before House Oversight Committee

Three Democratic governors known for their sanctuary state policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, testified before the full House Oversight Committee on Thursday. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker fielded questions from lawmakers, often in tense exchanges.

Representatives from both parties, as well as the governors, characterized the inflow of illegal immigrants as a crisis that strained public resources. But they sharply disagreed over immigration policy.

What did Republican representatives say during the hearing? Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., set the tone for Republicans with his opening remarks. Sanctuary policies protect criminal illegal immigrants and actively undermine federal law, he said. Comer urged legislative action against such policies.

Rep. Clay Higgins, R.-La., slammed governors for offering what he characterized as an invitation to violent illegal immigrants. However, Pritzker told Higgins that he wasn’t responsible for the influx, as a Republican border governor shipped 50,000 illegal immigrants to his state. Several other representatives also focused their questions on violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants. Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama said about 400 immigrants had been smuggled into the country by an ISIS affiliate and characterized the governors as shielding terrorists. Hochul responded that New York cooperates fully with all criminal investigations.

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona told governors that sanctuary policies were illegal. State governments needed to cooperate with civil as well as criminal warrants for illegal immigrants, Biggs said. He cited a U.S. legal code provision that prohibits encouraging someone to enter the country illegally or knowingly sheltering them from detection.

What points did Democrats focus on during the hearing? Many Democratic representatives critiqued the Trump administration’s response to protests and riots in Los Angeles over immigration enforcement. The Oversight Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, said Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard and Marines to the city was unconstitutional and an act of thuggery. Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida called the move lawless. He also accused President Trump of weaponizing the Department of Justice against his political opponents, using the recent indictment of a congresswoman on assault charges as an example.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D.-Calif., took a different approach. He criticized the budget megabill, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, currently under Senate revisions, that funds most of President Trump’s priorities. He asked governors to comment on whether the cuts to healthcare benefits included in the bill were more of a concern to them than the illegal immigrants in their states, whom Garcia called law-abiding undocumented workers. Pritzker said the proposed cuts were of more concern to his constituents and that they would cause people to become uninsured and die.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D.-Texas, raised concerns that American tourism would suffer economically from a reputation of hostility to immigrants and outsiders. Hochul agreed with her. Crockett also said Republican governors’ immigration management tactics were fiscally irresponsible, noting that Texas Governor Greg Abbott spent $221 million bussing illegal immigrants out of his state.

Dig deeper: Read my report on mass arrests in Los Angeles, following five days of protests and riots.