Mayor Michelle Wu said Monday that she's ready to testify before Congress this week about Boston's status as a sanctuary city.
"Not my first rodeo," she said when asked about what she's expecting.
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"We have already seen some materials put out in advance that seems designed to heighten interest and frame it as some id of showdown or dramatic moment," Wu added. "I am going to represent the City of Boston, the amazing people who live here, work here who are making our community wonderful. I'm there no matter how challenging the circumstance is to stand up for Boston and also stand up for the truth, the facts of what we are."
The mayor said some people are trying to paint a story of cities where immigants live as being dangerous, when she said Boston is proof of exactly the opposite.
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"We are one of the most diverse cities -- 28% of our residents were born in another country -- and we are the safest major city in the country."
Wu and three other mayors are scheduled to testify before the U.S. House Oversight Committee in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday about their cities' immigrant sanctuary policies.
Critics decry sanctuary policies that prevent local police from holding immigrant criminals for ICE once they post bond or get released from jail, while Wu and others say criminals do get prosecuted in Massachusetts, no matter their immigration status, and that state law dictates that they not help enforce federal immigration law.
Ahead of this week's hearing, White House border czar Tom Homan has also been referencing Boston, even promising to "bring hell" to Boston over its sanctuary city policy in a recent speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference.
