Democrat Governors Grilled on Sanctuary Policies, Illegal Alien Crimes at Hill Hearing

Three Democrat governors defended their sanctuary state policies for illegal aliens before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday.

Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois, Kathy Hochul of New York, and Tim Walz of Minnesota testified at the hearing, which came just days after riots broke out in Los Angeles against the enforcement of federal immigration law by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Those protests quickly spread across the country to cities as far-flung as New York and Dallas and Austin in Texas.

The Department of Homeland Security defines sanctuary jurisdictions as “cities, counties, and states that are deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws and endangering American citizens.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., ripped into fellow New Yorker Hochul, raising several cases of horrific crimes said to have been committed by illegal aliens in that state. The New York congresswoman repeatedly asked Hochul if she knew the names of the accused perpetrators of the crimes, and the New York governor was unable to correctly identify any of them.

Stefanik asked Hochul about Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, an illegal alien from Guatemala who is accused of setting on fire a sleeping woman, Debrina Kawam, on the subway in December, resulting in her being burned alive. He has been charged with one count each of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and first-degree arson.

Zapeta-Calil had previously been deported from the U.S. in 2018. ICE issued an order to detain Zapeta-Calil after he was arrested, but it has been denied access due to New York sanctuary policies, according to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

“I just want to say this: These crimes are horrific,” Hochul said, adding, “I condemn them.”

“Because of your sanctuary state policies,” Stefanik responded. 

“And I would say in all of these cases, we would work with ICE to remove them,” Hochul continued in a moment of crosstalk between the governor and congresswoman. 

“You did not in this case,” Stefanik pointed out.

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the committee, said, “Unfortunately, there are too many instances where criminal illegal aliens have harmed Americans.”

Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., the acting ranking member of the panel, in his opening statement accused the Trump administration of being Nazis.

“I’m proud of my Democratic colleagues who are willing to stand up to this thuggery. Trump is a wannabe gangster, and he’s showing the world what he’s about,” Lynch said.

“And I’m proud. You know, my dad served in the Second World War. He fought the Nazis in Northern Africa. He fought the Nazis on the Italian peninsula, and I think he’s looking down right now, and he’s happy that I’m fighting today’s Nazis. He’s proud of that. We all should be,” the Massachusetts congressman said.

For his part, Walz appeared to shy away from the term sanctuary state. The Minnesota governor declared that “Minnesota is not even a sanctuary state.”

“[The] Minnesota legislature has passed no such bill, and I have signed no such law,” he said. 

During his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, Walz said, “My position on Minnesota becoming a sanctuary state boils down to who has the responsibility for enforcing immigration laws,” adding:

Here’s what I believe: Congress has given federal agencies the authority to enforce immigration laws in Minnesota, and I support their doing so. 

The Minnesota governor also signed state legislation that gave as many as 81,000 illegal aliens Minnesota driver’s licenses. 

Comer made the point that Walz, who ran unsuccessfully for vice president in 2024, had called ICE “Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo” at a recent commencement speech at the University of Minnesota law school.

The Kentucky Republican referenced the case of Katherine Abraham, 20, and Chloe Polzin, 21, who were killed when the car they were in was rear-ended at a stoplight in Urbana, Illinois. Julio Cucul Bol, an illegal alien from Guatemala, has been charged “with two counts of aggravated driving under the influence causing death, two counts of leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death, and two counts of reckless homicide,” according to local news media.  

Abraham’s father and stepmother were present at the House panel’s hearing.

Cucul Bol had been living in America with false papers identifying him as a Mexican national. 

Comer asked Pritzker if Cucul Bol should have been in the U.S. in the first place and had a right to be in the U.S. 

“No, I’m suggesting to you that when we, and I have responsibility for the state of Illinois, I can tell you that it’s the responsibility of the federal government to manage immigration in this country, and if you’re suggesting that the federal government didn’t do its job, that is up to you to determine. I can tell you that in the state of Illinois we follow the law,” the Illinois governor said.

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