The House voted Thursday to revoke the District of Columbia’s sanctuary policies, as Republicans said sanctuary governors had blood on their hands for protecting illegal immigrants who went on to victimize Americans.

Republicans provided most of the support in the 224-194 vote to revoke the D.C. policies and require city officials to share information and cooperate with “detainer” requests when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants the city to turn over illegal immigrants in its custody.

“At the end of the day, illegal alien criminals who threaten our communities have no right to be here in the first place,” said Rep. James Comer, Kentucky Republican. “State and local governments must work with the Department of Homeland Security to share information on individuals they arrest.”

He also led a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing with the governors of New York, Illinois and Minnesota, who said their policies were reasonable compromises between helping public safety and getting involved in immigration enforcement.

“You’re putting a federal problem on our laps,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat. “I wish you would just do your job.”

Republicans confronted the New York governor with a horrific photo of a woman being burned alive on a New York subway and said the culprit was an illegal immigrant protected by sanctuary policies.

“This is the result of your sick and disgusting treasonous laws,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican.

She also held up a photo of Laken Riley, the Georgia nursing student whose death last year catapulted the immigration issue to the fore of the political debate. It helped sink the campaigns of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Ms. Greene said Riley’s killer, Jose Ibarra, was arrested and released by New York authorities before ICE had a chance to pick him up, thanks to the state’s lax bail laws. She said New York paid for his subsequent travel to Georgia, where he viciously killed Riley.

“You are responsible for the murder of this little girl, Laken Riley, and the Department of Justice should prosecute you for her murder,” Ms. Greene said.

“Laken Riley should be alive today,” Ms. Hochul said, but she insisted her case “has nothing to do with our civil enforcement of the laws.”

Sanctuary cities increased in the first Trump administration but have become more controversial after four years of open borders under Mr. Biden. Several high-profile crimes have been attributed to illegal immigrants.

Some jurisdictions are rethinking the idea of sanctuaries and embracing better cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security.

Defining a sanctuary can be tricky, and policies vary.

Some jurisdictions prohibit cooperation in most or all cases, including information sharing and honoring ICE detainers.

Others allow cooperation, such as notifying ICE before a release but declining to hold someone specifically for an immigration pickup.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz insisted Thursday that his state is not a sanctuary and that it follows the law. The Democrat said counties are allowed to follow detainers.

However, the Federation for American Immigration Reform lists Minnesota as a sanctuary because state law prohibits police from holding an illegal immigrant beyond their regular release time solely to comply with an ICE request.

Homeland Security listed Minnesota, New York and Illinois among sanctuaries last month but removed the list after several jurisdictions objected to the label.

The District’s sanctuary policies restrict information sharing and hinder cooperation with ICE on deportation “detainer” requests.

The bill that cleared the House would prevent both types of policies.

“The District of Columbia should be following the federal law in the first place,” said Rep. Clay Higgins, the Louisiana Republican who sponsored the bill. “I shouldn’t have to explain these things, but we are going to, by God, require that our nation’s capital comply with our nation’s federal law.”

Democrats complained that the measure overstepped the city’s elected officials, who they said should determine local laws.

“I strongly support the ability of the residents of the District of Columbia to govern themselves,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, the senior Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

He said the city is “in full compliance with federal law” because it doesn’t actively obstruct federal officers in the field.

Sanctuary jurisdictions say they achieve safety in other ways, such as promoting cooperation between immigrant communities and police. They say sharing information or complying with detainers would frighten immigrants from serving as witnesses or reporting crimes.

Much of the disagreement at the hearing was about semantics and misunderstandings.

Mr. Walz repeatedly insisted his state would cooperate in turning over illegal immigrant deportation targets in cases where “due process” was observed. He said that meant a warrant.

However, that misconstrues the immigration system. Being in the country illegally is a civil offense for which the consequence is deportation, and ICE officers use civil detainer requests to ask that illegal immigrants be turned over to face deportation.

Those detainers are usually at issue.

Mr. Walz, his party’s 2024 vice presidential nominee, also came under scrutiny for comparing ICE officers to the “Gestapo.”

He declined Rep. Nancy Mace’s invitation to apologize.

Even after Ms. Mace, South Carolina Republican, reminded him of the war crimes in which the Gestapo was complicit, he stood by his remarks. He called it a “historical comparison” based on ICE officers’ use of masks and at-large arrests without identifying themselves as immigration officers. He said that sounded like a “secret police.”

Ms. Mace also stumped the governor by asking him to define a woman.

“I’m not sure I understand the question here,” the governor said. “What do you want me to say?”

Ms. Mace was not pleased.

“You’re the party of violence, and you’re the party erasing women,” she said.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, was confronted by lawmakers who pointed to Katie Abraham, a 20-year-old Illinois resident killed in a hit-and-run crash by what officials said was an illegal immigrant. Her family was at the hearing.

“I am very sorry for their loss, I really am,” he said.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.