Lucas: Anniversary of a bloodbath

Michell Wu, mayor of sanctuary Boston, ought to remind Congress in her testimony earlier than the Home Oversight Committee  Wednesday that it falls on the anniversary of the Boston Bloodbath.

The committee, headed by Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, is investigating sanctuary cities, of which Boston is one.

Additionally scheduled to testify are New York Mayor Eric Adams, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston.

President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities which intervene with the “lawful train of Federal legislation enforcement operations,” which implies the arrest and deportation of prison unlawful immigrants.

Far-fetched because it seems, Wu might stand as much as Trump the best way Boston colonialists stood as much as the King George and the British.

Aside from that, she doesn’t have a lot going for her because the committee has already condemned Boston and the opposite three cities for “their abject failure to adjust to federal legislation.”

The Boston Bloodbath was the incident on March 5, 1770, when a contingent of harassed British troopers opened fireplace on a bunch of oppressed and indignant Boston colonialists on King Avenue behind the previous State Home. They had been protesting British rule.

5 Colonists had been killed and a number of other extra wounded.

The killings helped ignite the Revolutionary Struggle that started following the April 19, 1775, skirmishes referred to as the Battle of Lexington and Harmony and the vastly bloodier June 17, 1775, Battle of Bunker Hill in Charlestown.

Warming up, Wu might invite Comer and the committee to stroll Boston’s Freedom Path and go to the bloodbath web site. It might put issues in perspective on the eve of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776.

That anniversary shall be a giant deal in Boston, the house of the revolutionaries, a lot of whom had been immigrants, authorized or in any other case. The British thought they had been criminals.

The Revolutionary Struggle, or the Struggle of Independence, was fought to throw off oppressive British legislation and management of the Colonies. Boston in some ways was the middle of the revolt towards British rule and legislation.

Now, all these years later, Boston is in some ways the middle of the revolt towards United States rule and legislation on the subject of defending unlawful immigrants, notably towards Trump’s directive to withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities that intervene or impede ICE operations.

Wu, the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, falls again on the Boston Belief Act which she voted for as a metropolis councilor and is supporting as mayor.

The act prohibits Boston cops from asking people about their immigration standing, sharing data with ICE, making arrests solely on ICE administrative warrants, performing the perform of federal immigration officers in addition to transferring people to ICE custody.

Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, who has promised to deliver “hell” to Boston, and Comer could not just like the act, nevertheless it appears to be all proper with the Boston Police Patrolman’s Affiliation. It endorsed Wu for mayor Thursday over challenger Josh Kraft.

The endorsement will not be solely a lift to her marketing campaign for re-election, nevertheless it arms her with a worthwhile speaking level when she testifies Wednesday earlier than Comer’s committee.

She is going to want it despite the fact that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Courtroom has dominated that “courtroom officers (and presumably cops) haven’t any authority to arrest and maintain people solely on the bases of an ICE warrant.

So, if the cops are together with her, who may be towards?

Nicely, President Trump for one. He has vowed to withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities “which search to intervene with the enforcement of Federal legislation enforcement operations.”

Which is little question why Comer, in his letter requesting Wu’s testimony, made it clear that Wu is not going to be addressing the Boston Metropolis Council, however a committee decided to crack down on sanctuary cities.

The letter stated, “It’s crucial that federal immigration legislation is enforced and that prison aliens are swiftly faraway from our communities.”

The president has his legislation and the mayor has hers. It’s a conflict.

It might be a bloodbath.

Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas may be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com