Overview

• The House Committee on Oversight held a June 12 hearing where Republicans led by Chairman James Comer pressed Democratic governors JB Pritzker, Kathy Hochul and Tim Walz on their states’ sanctuary policies.
• The governors said sanctuary policies uphold federalism by limiting state and local cooperation with ICE to legally mandated requirements.
• Republicans cited incidents of violent crimes by undocumented immigrants to argue sanctuary laws threaten public safety, a position the governors dismissed as alarmist.
• Governors condemned President Trump’s deployment of thousands of National Guard troops and 700 Marines to California for immigration enforcement as unconstitutional overreach.
• The exchange highlighted the widening partisan split over immigration enforcement responsibilities between federal and state authorities.