Mayor Michelle Wu touted Boston as the “safest major city” in the country and took a swipe at the federal administration for spreading fear and undermining police work in her opening remarks before a Congressional committee probing sanctuary cities.

Wu came out swinging at a highly anticipated hearing of the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in Washington, D.C. — where she pushed back against prior messaging from the committee that sanctuary city policies shield illegal immigrant criminals and endanger public safety.

“We are the safest major city in the nation,” Wu said Wednesday. “We are home to the greatest healthcare, the greatest colleges and universities, the most advanced innovators, and the 2024 World Champion Boston Celtics.

“We are the cradle of democracy and the city of champions. We are all these things not in spite of our immigrants, but because of them.”

Wu, the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants who benefited from birthright citizenship, opened her remarks by mentioning the former.

She also went straight into her defense of the city’s public safety record, saying that homicides in 2024 were the lowest on record for roughly the past 70 years, and gun violence has decreased each of the three years she’s been mayor.

Wu said those “record lows” are built on the city’s investments in “opportunities that cultivate prosperity and eradicate crime,” such as paid summer employment for young people and community policing.

“We are the safest major city in the country because our gun laws are the strongest in the nation, because our officers have built relationships over decades, and because all our residents trust that they can call 911 in the event of an emergency or to report a crime,” Wu said.

“The federal administration’s approach is undermining that trust,” she said.

Such federal polices are “making hard-working, tax-paying, God-fearing people afraid to live their lives,” Wu said.

“A city that’s scared is not a city that’s safe,” Boston’s mayor added.

Alluding to the Boston Trust Act, a 2014 local law that enshrines the city’s sanctuary status by prohibiting city police and other departments from cooperating with federal authorities on civil immigration detainers, Wu said, “The laws on our books promote the kind of community trust that keeps all of us safe.”

“In Boston, our police department resources — and taxpayer dollars — go toward preventing and solving crimes,” Wu said. “And when it comes to criminal matters, Boston Police collaborate with state and federal law enforcement every day.

“But Massachusetts state law and the Boston Trust Act make clear that immigration is federal law enforcement’s responsibility.”

Wu elaborated in a separate written statement to the committee that, per the Trust Act and a 2017 Supreme Judicial Court ruling, law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts “may not detain people solely for alleged civil immigration violations.”

She insisted, however, that Boston’s police officers “uphold the law” and that when it comes to criminal matters, BPD collaborates with the city’s state and federal law enforcement partners “every day.”

Police enforce criminal warrants, regardless of immigration status, Wu said.

“If you commit a crime in Boston, regardless of your immigration status, you will be held accountable,” Wu said. “And if you are a violent criminal, you have no place in our community. But without a criminal warrant, BPD has no authority to detain an individual if the court system orders them to be released.”

While Wu says that her “job is to ensure we are using our public resources wisely,” she made no mention in either her opening remarks or written statement to the committee how much the city has spent on the immigration crisis.

Her office did say this week that the mayor “expects to pay” up to $650,000 in city funds to prepare for the high-stakes congressional hearing, and brought along a dozen staff members at an additional cost of $8,500.

Wu was compelled to testify in D.C. alongside three other sanctuary city mayors from Chicago, Denver and New York City, via a letter sent to each mayor in late January by oversight committee Chair James Comer, a Kentucky Republican.

Comer’s letter stated that the committee was “investigating sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States and their impact on public safety and the effectiveness of federal efforts to enforce” the country’s “immigration laws.”

In a statement released ahead of the hearing, Comer, per State House News Service, said, “The pro-illegal alien mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York City have implemented reckless, illegal policies that shield criminal aliens from federal immigration enforcement and endanger public safety.

“Criminal alien predators should not be free to roam our communities,” Comer said. “State and local governments that refuse to comply with federal immigration enforcement efforts should not receive a penny of federal funding. President Trump and his administration are rightly taking action against sanctuary cities.”

This is a developing story.