House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) invited Democratic governors to Washington, D.C., to testify about their states’ immigration rules.
Govs. Tim Walz (D-MN), Kathy Hochul (D-NY), and JB Pritzker (D-IL) were invited to the committee hearing scheduled for May 15. It follows a separate hearing where the mayors of several other Democrat-led major cities were questioned about their sanctuary city policies.
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“Harboring aliens is a federal crime,” Comer wrote on X while announcing his invitations. “Sanctuary policies championed by these governors jeopardize the safety of Americans and defy U.S. immigration laws. President Trump is preparing to take executive action to withhold federal funding from sanctuary states.”
“Working alongside President Trump, Congress must ensure federal immigration law is enforced and that criminal aliens are swiftly removed from our communities,” he added.
Hochul has already responded to the request publicly, saying she is willing to testify.
“We just received notification of their interest in my opinion on state laws, which I’m happy to share with them,” she told reporters at an unrelated Thursday event. “I told people like [border czar] Tom Homan that I will continue doing what our practice has been from beginning, which is to cooperate with [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] when they have a warrant or they have evidence that there’s a person who’s committed a serious crime.”
Pritzker and Walz have yet to respond publicly, though the Illinois governor’s office told Politico he was weighing whether to do so. “Let’s call this what this is: another partisan dog and pony show,” Pritzker spokesman Alex Gough said.
“Sanctuary jurisdictions and their obstructionist policies hinder the ability of federal law enforcement officers to effectuate safe arrests and remove dangerous criminals from American communities,” Comer wrote in letters to the governors. “This threatens Americans’ safety.”
The hearing is another opportunity for Comer, who has said he is weighing a bid to run for governor of Kentucky in 2027, to be in the national spotlight. The Kentucky House member clashed with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu during March’s hearing, pressing her on whether she’d turn over an illegal immigrant who committed a crime to ICE.
If the three Democratic governors show up, they’d represent a higher class of Democratic power than what the mayoral hearing displayed before. Walz was the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, Pritzker has been floated as a 2028 presidential candidate, and Hochul is the high-profile governor of a populous state.
The reasoning for why Walz was among the governors invited is unclear. Minnesota, unlike New York and Illinois, does not struggle with migrant problems that match the other governors’ states and other places such as California or Texas.
According to Pew Research data, New York and Illinois ranked fourth and sixth, respectively, in 2022 for their unauthorized immigrant populations. Minnesota ranked 24th.
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President Donald Trump emphasized his displeasure with sanctuary cities on Thursday morning.
“No more Sanctuary Cities! They protect the Criminals, not the Victims,” he said in a social media post. “They are disgracing our Country, and are being mocked all over the World. Working on papers to withhold all Federal Funding for any City or State that allows these Death Traps to exist!!!”
