On Thursday’s “CNN This Morning,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) discussed the sanctuary city hearing in Congress on Wednesday and responded to a question on the Democratic Party’s vision on the issue by praising how the mayors “talked about how crime has actually gone down, even with an influx of undocumented immigrants.”

Host Audie Cornish asked, “I saw a sort of divide there, Democrats saying, you’re going into schools, you’re going to be taking kids out of the classrooms. Republicans saying, you’ve let gang members hang out in your jails for a hot minute without cooperating with ICE. It’s like painting two very different visions. What can Democrats do for their vision, I think, to maybe resonate more?”

Subramanyam answered, “Well, I thought the mayors did great. They talked about how crime has actually gone down, even with an influx of undocumented immigrants. How many of the immigrants coming into their communities actually commit crime at a much lower rate than the average American. And, just generally, they talked about what they’re doing to try to handle the influx of immigrants. I thought they did great, honestly, and –.”

Cornish then cut in to ask, “But does that worry you? When I think about the Biden administration, Harris administration, this was often a talking point with Democrats, things are not as bad as you’re saying. That did not resonate with voters.”

Subramanyam responded, “Yeah, well, all they had was facts, right? And the facts spoke for themselves. They talked about how they were able to get folks housing. They were able to get folks jobs. And they were able to run through what was going on and do a good job of it. And so, we had facts as well. We talked about how the bill that they’re trying to put forward, basically defunding any city from any federal funding if they welcome immigrants, that’s really bad for a lot of these cities’ public safety. They’re actually going to make crime worse, not better, by doing that.”

Subramanyam added that the cities handle illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes “quite well, actually, and with public safety in mind.”

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