【中美创新时报2025 年 1 月 29 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）新一届共和党领导的华盛顿将波士顿及其市长置于关注的焦点，聚焦该市的移民政策，并将吴弭（Michelle Wu）市长定位为自由抵抗运动的代言人，如果她愿意的话。吴弭周二表示：“我们会及时作出回应”，但并未承诺出席小组讨论。《波士顿环球报》记者Emma Platoff 和 Samantha J. Gross对此作了下述详细报道。
周二，共和党领导的国会委员会将波士顿列为“严重违反”联邦移民法的四个城市之一，并要求吴弭下个月在华盛顿出席委员会会议。吴弭在会上做出了慎重的回应。
“华盛顿会玩弄政治。让他们去做他们该做的事。我们将继续专注于为这里的社区服务，”吴弭在市政厅表示，这是她两周前生下第三个孩子以来首次亲自出席会议。“我们有自己的地盘，我们坚信我们有坚实的法律基础。”
吴弭市长称波士顿是“全国最安全的大城市”，并承诺“我们会及时回复”这封信。她没有承诺出席委员会，也没有收到传票。
这里的民主党人迅速将共和党的调查解读为党派攻击。毕竟，到 2024 年，波士顿的凶杀案数量有望达到近七十年来的最低水平，这削弱了右翼流行的“庇护城市”移民政策助长暴力犯罪的论点。波士顿限制与联邦机构合作驱逐无证移民的政策并非独一无二：全国许多城市都采用类似的规程。
周二，在一场无关的活动中，当被问及共和党领导的国会请求时，州长 Maura Healey 直言不讳。
“当然是政治问题，”她说。“我们会看到更多这样的情况。”
庇护城市没有正式的法律定义，波士顿官员自己也不使用这个词。在共和党圈子里，它已经成为那些拒绝与联邦当局合作并仅根据移民身份拘留人员的城市的贬义政治简称。在马萨诸塞州，州警察被禁止在没有犯罪行为的情况下协助驱逐出境工作，因为未经合法授权入境在州一级并不被视为犯罪。
市议会最近重申的 2014 年波士顿信托法案禁止当地警察扣留移民，除非美国已发出逮捕该人的刑事令，否则联邦当局可能将其驱逐出境。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。此类政策的倡导者认为，它们是社区安全的重要工具：支持者表示，如果无证移民每次与当地当局打交道时都担心被驱逐出境，他们可能不太可能举报犯罪行为。
特朗普政府已经采取措施针对波士顿等城市：根据上周发给司法部员工的一份备忘录，如果政治和执法官员不遵守联邦逮捕和驱逐无证移民的努力，他们将面临联邦起诉的威胁。现在，共和党领导的众议院监督和政府改革委员会正在对庇护城市展开调查，并于周一要求吴在 2 月 11 日听证会前提供文件和信息。
“庇护管辖区及其误导性和阻挠性政策阻碍了联邦执法人员实施安全逮捕和从美国社区驱逐危险罪犯的能力，使美国人更加不安全，”委员会主席、肯塔基州共和党众议员詹姆斯·科默在信中说道。这封信针对波士顿、纽约、芝加哥和丹佛，要求当地领导人出席小组会议。
该委员会共和党领导人的发言人没有指出任何使波士顿移民政策特别引人注目的因素。但她确实暗示，如果吴拒绝委员会的出庭要求，她可能会受到国会传票的约束。
“主席希望所有受邀市长都能出庭作证，并将评估他可以使用的工具，以便在必要时强迫他们作证，”她在一份声明中说。
当被问及她是否会违抗国会传票在委员会作证时，吴弭说她不会猜测。
马萨诸塞州国会代表团成员为吴弭辩护。委员会成员、来自波士顿的民主党众议员阿亚娜·普雷斯利在一份声明中表示，吴弭“领导着美国最安全的大城市，在支持移民家庭方面一直是全国的领导者。”
“众议院共和党人应该花更多时间学习波士顿的例子，”她说。
东北大学法学院移民司法诊所联合创始人兼主任 Hemanth C. Gundavaram 表示，虽然被针对的市长管理的城市对移民的保护相对较强，但委员会的关注点似乎更多地放在他们的个性上。
他指出，所有被传唤的市长都直言不讳地承诺保护移民社区。让他们出席国会可能会吓倒其他志同道合的地方领导人，给他们施加压力，让他们保持沉默——就像 2023 年激进的国会听证会对大学校长产生的影响一样，最终迫使一位主要大学校长在几天内辞职。
对于一些人来说，吴弭出现在充满敌意的国会面前的幽灵让人想起了克劳丁·盖伊的故事——另一位领导波士顿地区一家主要机构的有色人种女性，她被传唤到国会，后来在巨大的压力和审查后辞职。
“有可能把这些市长带到国会面前，让他们难堪。 “这会给城市、州和其他持有类似观点的人带来负面影响，”冈达瓦拉姆说。“你可能会让其他市长感到恐惧。”
这并不是吴弭第一次受到全国共和党人的审查。去年，吴弭表示地方当局不会帮助执行特朗普承诺的大规模驱逐移民计划，此后，总统的边境事务主管汤姆·霍曼将矛头指向了这位进步派市长。
“要么她帮助我们，要么她滚开，因为我们会这么做，”霍曼在 11 月表示。他还讽刺了这位哈佛大学和哈佛法学院的毕业生：“我承认她不太聪明。”
另外，帮助特朗普当选的亿万富翁埃隆·马斯克声称，马萨诸塞州的庇护城市“保护了儿童强奸犯”，此前，梅休因和大巴灵顿的三名非法移民被捕，他们分别面临针对儿童的刑事指控或定罪。
对于政治分析家来说，关注吴弭、波士顿和马萨诸塞州的动机是显而易见的。波士顿是蓝州的一个自由城市，拥有众多精英高等教育机构，领导人是一位有色人种女性——这些都是吴弭被单独挑出来的原因，马萨诸塞大学波士顿分校政治学教授艾琳·奥布莱恩说。
“特朗普政府，至少在波士顿，正在追查一个并不存在的问题，而不仅仅是为了制作真人秀节目，”奥布莱恩说。“这将是一场政治舞台，对个人生活产生巨大影响。”
吴弭的个人故事也可能成为焦点，因为她面临着更多的全国性审查。吴弭是台湾移民的女儿，她因出生公民权而成为美国公民，而这是特朗普正在努力废除的宪法保障。她曾亲身且充满激情地谈论移民与美国的特殊关系。
周二，当被问及她认为波士顿为何吸引了全国共和党人如此多的兴趣时，吴弭指出了这座城市的成就。
“从一开始，”她说，“波士顿的进步显然对某些人来说似乎是一种威胁。”
《波士顿环球报》工作人员 Shannon Larson 对本报道亦有贡献。
题图：“华盛顿将玩弄政治。让他们做他们正在做的事情。我们将继续专注于为这里的社区服务，”市长吴弭说。John Tlumacki/Globe 员工
附原英文报道：
Request to testify before Congress on immigration puts Boston — and Michelle Wu — back in national GOP’s crosshairs
‘We’ll respond in due time,’ Wu said Tuesday, but did not commit to appearing before the panel
By Emma Platoff and Samantha J. Gross Globe Staff,Updated January 28, 2025
“D.C. is going to play politics. Let them do what they’re doing. We’re going to stay focused on serving our communities here,” Mayor Michelle Wu said.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
A new Republican-led Washington has put Boston and its mayor in its crosshairs, spotlighting the city’s immigration policies and positioning Mayor Michelle Wu to become the face of a liberal resistance movement, should she choose.
Wu gave a measured response Tuesday after a Republican-led congressional committee singled out Boston as one of four cities that “stand out in their abject failure to comply” with federal immigration law, and asked Wu to appear before the panel in Washington next month.
“D.C. is going to play politics. Let them do what they’re doing. We’re going to stay focused on serving our communities here,” Wu said at City Hall, in her first in-person appearance since she delivered her third child two weeks ago. “We have our domain, and we feel very strongly that we’re on solid legal ground.”
The mayor touted Boston as “the safest major city in the country” and promised, “we’ll respond in due time” to the letter. She did not commit to appearing before the committee, and has not received a subpoena to do so.
Democrats here quickly interpreted the GOP probe as a partisan jab. Boston, after all, was on track to end 2024 with the fewest homicides in nearly seven decades, undermining arguments popular on the right that the immigration policies of “sanctuary cities” have fueled violent crime. And Boston’s policies limiting cooperation with federal agencies’ efforts to deport undocumented immigrants are hardly unique: scores of municipalities across the country employ similar protocols.
Asked about the GOP-led congressional request at an unrelated event on Tuesday, Governor Maura Healey was direct.
“Of course it’s political,” she said. “And we’re going to see more of it.”
There is no formal legal definition of a sanctuary city, and Boston officials do not use the term themselves. In Republican circles, it has become derogatory political shorthand for municipalities that refuse to cooperate with federal authorities and detain people based solely on their immigration status. In Massachusetts, State Police are barred from assisting in deportation efforts in cases where there is no criminal offense, since being in the country without legal authorization alone is not considered a crime at the state level.
The 2014 Boston Trust Act, which the City Council recently reaffirmed, bars local police from holding immigrants for possible deportation by federal authorities unless a criminal warrant has been issued in the United States 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.” Advocates for such policies argue they are important tools for community safety: if undocumented immigrants fear deportation every time they interact with local authorities, they may be less likely to report crimes, supporters say.
The Trump administration has already taken steps to target cities like Boston: Political and law enforcement officials face the threat of federal prosecution if they fail to comply with federal efforts to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants, according to a memo issued to Justice Department employees last week. Now, the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is opening a probe into sanctuary cities and on Monday requested documents and information from Wu ahead of a Feb. 11 hearing.
“Sanctuary jurisdictions and their misguided and obstructionist policies hinder the ability of federal law enforcement officers to effectuate safe arrests and remove dangerous criminals from American communities, making Americans less safe,” said the letter from the committee’s chairman, Republican Representative James Comer of Kentucky. The letter targeted Boston, New York, Chicago, and Denver, asking local leaders to appear before the panel.
A spokesperson for the committee’s Republican leader did not identify any factors that made Boston’s immigration policies particularly notable. She did, however, suggest Wu could be subject to a congressional subpoena should she decline the committee’s request to appear.
“The chairman expects all invited mayors to testify and will evaluate tools at his disposal to compel their testimony if necessary,” she said in a statement.
Asked whether she would defy a congressional subpoena to testify before the committee, Wu said she would not speculate.
Members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation sprang to Wu’s defense. Representative Ayanna Pressley, a Boston Democrat who sits on the committee, said in a statement that Wu “leads the safest big city in the United States and has been a national leader when it comes to supporting immigrant families.”
“House Republicans should spend more time learning from Boston’s example,” she said.
Hemanth C. Gundavaram, cofounder and director of the Immigrant Justice Clinic at Northeastern University School of Law, said that while the mayors being targeted run cities with relatively strong protections for immigrants, the focus of the committee seems to be more on their personalities.
All of the mayors summoned have been vocal in their commitment to protecting immigrant communities, he pointed out. Bringing them before Congress could intimidate other like-minded local leaders, putting pressure on them to keep quiet — much like the effect on university presidents in the wake of the aggressive 2023 congressional hearings that ultimately pushed one major university president to resign within days.
For some, the specter of Wu appearing before a hostile Congress recalls the story of Claudine Gay — another woman of color leading a major Boston-area institution who was called before Congress and later resigned after immense pressure and scrutiny.
“There’s a possibility of bringing these mayors before Congress and making them look bad. That reflects negatively on the city, the state, and other people who hold similar views,” Gundavaram said. “You may be able to put other mayors in fear.”
This is hardly the first time Wu has come under scrutiny from national Republicans. After she said last year that local authorities wouldn’t help carry out the mass deportation of immigrants that Trump has promised, the president’s border czar, Tom Homan, took aim at the progressive mayor.
“Either she helps us, or she gets the hell out of the way, because we’re going to do it,” Homan said in November. He added this jab at the Harvard College and Harvard Law School graduate: “She’s not very smart, I’ll give her that.”
Separately, billionaire Elon Musk, who helped get Trump elected, claimed that Massachusetts sanctuary cities were “protecting child rapists” following the arrests of three undocumented immigrants in Methuen and Great Barrington who faced separate criminal charges or convictions of sex offenses against children.
For political analysts, the motivation behind focusing on Wu, Boston, and Massachusetts is obvious. Boston is a liberal city in a blue state, stacked with elite institutions of higher education, and led by a woman of color — all reasons Wu has been singled out, said Erin O’Brien, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
“The Trump administration, at least in Boston, is going after a problem that doesn’t exist just to make reality television,” O’Brien said. “It’s going to be political theater, with huge ramifications on individuals’ lives.”
Wu’s personal story may also take center stage as she faces more national scrutiny. The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, she is a citizen because of birthright citizenship, a constitutional guarantee that Trump is moving to end. She has spoken personally and passionately about the special relationship immigrants have with the country.
Asked on Tuesday why she believes Boston had drawn such interest from national Republicans, Wu pointed to the city’s achievements.
“From the beginning,” she said, “it’s been clear that Boston’s progress may seem threatening to some.”
Shannon Larson of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
