“这和我无关。”波士顿市长吴弭与即将上任的特朗普边境沙皇霍曼就驱逐出境方法发生争执
【中美创新时报2024 年 11 月 21 日编译讯】(记者温友平编译)在总统大选让唐纳德特朗普重新上台两周后,波士顿市长吴弭(Michelle Wu)在与特朗普即将上任的边境沙皇汤姆·霍曼(Tom Homan)的来回争论后,发现自己成为了全国关注的焦点。《波士顿环球报》记者Emma Platoff 和 Emily Sweeney 对此作了下述报道。
这位进步派市长在周日的电视采访中表示,地方当局不会协助联邦大规模驱逐行动,这一片段在保守派新闻节目中重新播放,这引起了霍曼的抨击。
“要么她帮助我们,要么她滚开,因为我们会这么做的,”霍曼周一在保守派新闻媒体 Newsmax 的采访中反驳道。
“我承认她不太聪明,”霍曼谈到这位哈佛大学和哈佛法学院的毕业生时说道。
“这里有一条明确的界线,他们不能越过这条界线,”他警告说。“他们不能合作,但有某些法律是他们不能越过的。我希望她不要越过这条界线。”
这场公开争吵发生在吴弭和全国各地的民主党人面临新的政治格局之际。特朗普的崛起为进步人士提供了充分的全国曝光机会,尽管这可能会破坏他们最珍视的政策目标。在她任期的前三年,吴弭并没有经常寻求这种关注,尽管她的进步议程和打破障碍的个人故事为她在国内和国际舞台上赢得了声望。
如果她愿意,特朗普第二次担任总统将为市长提供一个新的机会,让她跃升成为备受公众关注的“抵抗者领袖”。许多马萨诸塞州民主党人已经进入战斗模式,誓言要反击特朗普。州长莫拉·希利在特朗普第一次担任总统期间担任司法部长,她曾近 100 次起诉特朗普政府,这一举动赢得了全国的关注和国内的喝彩。这一次,希利承诺要“坚守阵地”反对特朗普,并成为该州“所有人的州长”,无论他们投票给谁。
与八年前相比,希利的语气听起来不那么好斗,也不如她的一些同僚那么强硬,比如加州州长加文·纽森,他呼吁立法机构召开特别会议,以支持该州的进步政策。她不是新成立的民主党州长联盟的成员,该联盟正在组织起来反对特朗普政府。
这说明民主党领导人正在权衡利弊,他们正准备对抗特朗普政府承诺的、他们认为站不住脚的指令,同时他们也明白,他们将依靠白宫获得联邦资金和重大政策举措。
吴弭的评论并没有为这座城市提出什么新政策,也没有超出希利在内的许多其他民主党人对这一话题的看法。州长最近表示,该州将使用“工具箱里的所有工具”来“保护我们的居民”,州警察“绝对不会”协助特朗普承诺的大规模驱逐行动。
吴弭引用了 2014 年《波士顿信托法案》,该法案禁止当地警方扣留移民,除非联邦当局已发出逮捕令,否则可能将其驱逐出境。吴弭表示,根据波士顿现行法律,执法部门不会被要求或期望参与大规模驱逐未参与“严重犯罪活动”的居民。
霍曼在电视采访中说:“特朗普总统将优先考虑公共安全威胁。哪个市长或州长不希望他们的社区受到公共安全威胁?保护社区是你们的首要责任,这正是我们要做的。”
波士顿为市长提供了一个独特的视角来回应特朗普承诺实施大规模驱逐。尽管移民已成为该州的主要爆发点,因为寻求更好生活的新移民给庇护系统带来了压力,但波士顿的犯罪统计数据并不像其他大城市那样令人不安。据《波士顿环球报》今年夏天报道,今年该市的枪支暴力事件出现了前所未有的下降。
吴弭周三在州议会大厦的一次无关活动中回答有关霍曼的问题时说:“人们可以随心所欲地谈论我。这不是我的事。我们的公共安全记录不言而喻。”她说波士顿是“美国最安全的大城市”,“我们有法律确保我们不配合民事移民拘留。”
吴弭说,这座城市的法律使它更安全,因为所有居民——无论他们的移民身份如何——都可以放心地向执法部门举报犯罪行为。
波士顿在公共安全方面表现相对强劲,这让一些民主党分析人士认为,霍曼的言论更多地与吴弭的身份有关,而不是她的政策。
“霍曼针对波士顿市长吴弭并非巧合,她恰好也是移民的女儿,”民主党顾问玛丽·安妮·马什 (Mary Anne Marsh) 说。
特朗普承诺封锁边境并“开展美国历史上最大规模的驱逐行动”。
前总统巴拉克·奥巴马 (Barack Obama) 在 2013 年进行了 432,000 次驱逐,这是有记录以来的最高年度总数。特朗普执政期间,每年的驱逐人数从未超过 350,000 人,除了 2020 年,当时数十万人也根据疫情时期的联邦法律被驱逐出境。
《波士顿环球报》工作人员尼基·格里斯沃尔德 (Niki Griswold) 对本报告做出了贡献。
题图:唐纳德特朗普即将上任的“边境沙皇”汤姆·霍曼通过媒体与波士顿市长吴弭展开对峙。美联社和 Globe 照片
附原英文报道:
‘This isn’t about me.’ Boston Mayor Michelle Wu spars with incoming Trump border czar Homan over deportation approach.
By Emma Platoff and Emily Sweeney Globe Staff,Updated November 20, 2024
Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s incoming “border czar,” squared off through the media with Michelle Wu, mayor of Boston.AP and Globe photos
Two weeks after the presidential election returned Donald Trump to power, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu finds herself in the national spotlight after a back-and-forth with Tom Homan, Trump’s incoming border czar.
The progressive mayor drew Homan’s fire after she said in a television interview Sunday that local authorities will not assist federal mass deportation efforts, in a clip that was recirculated on conservative news shows.
“Either she helps us, or she gets the hell out of the way, because we’re going to do it,” Homan shot back Monday in an interview on the conservative news outlet Newsmax.
“She’s not very smart, I’ll give her that,” Homan said of the Harvard College and Harvard Law School graduate.
“There’s a clear line here, and they can’t cross a clear line,” he cautioned. “They can not cooperate, but there are certain laws in place that they can’t cross. And I hope she doesn’t cross it.”
What to know about Tom Homan, Trump’s incoming ‘border czar’
The public spat comes as Wu and Democrats across the country navigate a new political landscape. Trump’s ascendance presents progressives with ample opportunity for national exposure, even as it threatens to undermine their most cherished policy objectives. In the first three years of her term, Wu has not routinely sought that spotlight, though her progressive agenda and barrier-breaking personal story have won her prominence on the national and international stage.
The second Trump presidency offers the mayor a fresh chance to vault into the highly public role of resister-in-chief, should she choose. Already, many Massachusetts Democrats have shifted into fight mode, pledging to push back against Trump. Governor Maura Healey, who was attorney general during the first Trump presidency, famously sued his administration nearly 100 times, an effort that won her national attention as well as plaudits at home. This time, Healey has pledged both to “hold the line” against Trump and to be a “governor for everyone” in the state, no matter who they voted for.
Healey’s tone has sounded somewhat less pugilistic than eight years ago, and less forceful than some of her peers, such as California Governor Gavin Newson, who called on his legislature to convene a special session to shore up the state’s progressive policies. She is not a member of a new coalition of Democratic governors organizing against the Trump administration.
It’s an illustration of the calculus Democratic leaders are making as they gear up to fight the promised Trump administration directives they find untenable, while understanding they will rely on this White House for federal funding and major policy initiatives.
Wu’s comments were not proposing some novel policy for the city, nor did they reach beyond what many other Democrats, including Healey, have said on the topic. The governor said recently that the state would use “every tool in the toolbox” to “protect our residents,” and that State Police would “absolutely not” assist in the mass deportation efforts Trump has promised.
Wu cited the 2014 Boston Trust Act, which bars local police from holding immigrants for possible deportation by federal authorities unless a criminal warrant has been issued for the person’s arrest. Under Boston’s existing laws, Wu has said, law enforcement will not be required or expected to participate in mass deportations of residents who have not been involved in “serious criminal activity.”
Homan said in the TV interview that, “President Trump’s going to prioritize public safety threats. What mayor or governor doesn’t want public safety threats out of their communities? That’s your number one responsibility, to protect your communities, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
Boston offers the mayor a unique perch from which to respond to Trump’s pledge to carry out mass deportations. While migration has become a major flashpoint in the state, as new arrivals seeking a better life strain the shelter system, Boston does not have the same troubling crime statistics as other major cities. The city has seen an unprecedented decline in gun violence this year, the Globe reported this summer.
“People can say whatever they want about me. This isn’t about me. Our public safety record speaks for itself,” Wu said Wednesday in response to questions about Homan at an unrelated event at the State House. She said Boston is “the safest major city in America,” and “we have laws on the books that ensure that we do not cooperate on civil immigration detainers.”
The city’s laws make it safer, Wu said, because all residents — regardless of their immigration status — can feel comfortable reporting crimes to law enforcement.
Boston’s comparatively strong record on public safety led some Democratic analysts to suggest that Homan’s comments had more to do with Wu’s identity than her policies.
“It’s not a coincidence that Homan’s targeted Michelle Wu, the mayor of Boston who also happens to be the daughter of immigrants,” said Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic consultant.
Trump has pledged to seal the border and “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.”
Former president Barack Obama carried out 432,000 deportations in 2013, the highest annual total since records were kept. Deportations under Trump never topped 350,000 a year during his first term, with the exception of 2020, when hundreds of thousands of people were also expelled under a pandemic-era use of federal law.
Niki Griswold of the Globe staff contributed to this report.