On Wednesday, four of America’s “sanctuary” city mayors will appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Government. Committee members will have a lot of questions.

They could start with this: Is there anything American citizens deserve that illegal aliens don’t?

For years, these mayors have raided city budgets to give free housing, medical care, schooling, legal assistance, and other benefits to brand-new arrivals. Can they distinguish between the taxpaying citizens who voted them into office and uninvited, inadmissible migrants?

Then, if I were on the Committee, I’d have specific questions for each mayor:

First, Boston’s Mayor Michelle Wu has said, “our job at the city level… is to follow the law.” Boston’s “Trust Act” is her excuse for Boston refusing to honor 15 detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement last year. I’d ask Wu if she’s willing to change that law.

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Boston’s "sanctuary” policy made it harder for ICE to find and arrest dangerous aliens like MS-13 member Luis Adolfo Guerra-Perez, alleged child rapist Mynor Stiven De Paz-Munoz, and alleged drug dealer Gustavo Augusto Mroczkoski. And maybe it’s what made the city attractive to Corey Alvarez, who was paroled at the border and went to a Boston-area migrant shelter where he was later charged with raping a 15-year-old disabled girl.

It's a tough question, but after spending $650,000 of Boston taxpayer money in legal fees to prepare for the hearing, Wu should be ready. I think her answer would be “no”—her attitude to crime was summed up last weekend when a crazed attacker tried to stab people with a knife and was shot by a quick-thinking cop. Wu’s reaction? To apologize to the family of the perpetrator.

I’d ask Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson whether it was right for Chicago to spend $95 million that Congress authorized for Covid costs to pay for shelters housing illegal immigrants. And I’d ask him why Chicago sent out $14.7 million in “resiliency” checks for $500 to tens of thousands of workers, noting that immigration status was not an issue.

Chicagoans seem unhappy at having to accept so many new English-learners in their struggling public schools, to pay for new migrant shelters when the city is in debt, and to face budget cuts. Brandon may think Chicago is “the global capital of the world” (his geography isn’t great, but he’s mastered tautology) but his approval rating is just 6.6%.

I’d ask Denver Mayor Mike Johnston what he calls the situation two years after then-mayor Mike Hancock said the city had an “emergency” with only 400 illegal aliens from the border. Since then, Denver has taken in more than 40,000 illegal immigrants and spent an estimated $340 million on housing, medical care, and thousands of new public school students. I’d also ask Johnston whether he thinks it’s fair to cut the Denver police and fire budgets to pay for it all.

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Johnston has said he supports deporting violent criminal aliens. If he’s serious, I’d ask him if he’s prepared to support Colorado House Bill 1140, which would allow state parole and probation officers to give information to federal agents about aliens on probation for violent felonies. Right now, a 2019 Colorado law prohibits this information sharing.

I’d ask New York’s Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, about crime. New York City Police estimate that three-quarters of people arrested for assault, robbery, and domestic violence in midtown Manhattan are illegal immigrants. Aliens are also well-represented in pickpocketing, shoplifting, and purse-snatching—guys like Jefferson Maldenado, who at last count had been arrested five times.

New York City policies don’t let cops ask or track the immigration status of crime suspects. But at the same time, the City Council just passed a law allowing 23 forms of identification that illegal aliens can use to get a city ID card to access housing, healthcare, and schools—before they’ve put anything into the fiscal kitty. Incredibly, this list of allowable IDs includes papers showing that an illegal migrant was arrested at the border by ICE and federal prison records.

So I’d ask Adams to square that circle: Why give aliens IDs and benefits, but not track their status? Taxpayers deserve to know who’s biting the hand that feeds them.

Wednesday’s hearing will be one to watch. These four mayors will be out of their friendly neighborhoods and testifying before a Congress that won’t give sanctuary. Buckle up.