Minneapolis Mayor on if City Can Afford Benefits to Migrants with Taxes Rising: ‘Immigrants Do Pay Taxes’

During an interview with Fox 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul on Tuesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) responded to a question on whether providing benefits to illegal immigrants is feasible with taxes increasing by stating that “immigrants do pay taxes. They are involved in our society.”

Host Amy Hockert asked, “Along the lines of the sanctuary city, so we’re getting several questions about that. This person wants to know why is Minneapolis a sanctuary city — we kind of talked about that a little bit — considering rising budget and property taxes, at what point can we not afford free health care for immigrants, do you feel that it is fair to offer benefits to non-citizens that are not available to struggling residents?”

Frey responded, “Well, so, first off, the term, again, sanctuary city is amorphous. I have sort of described what our rules are in Minneapolis. As it applies to the — let’s remember, immigrants do pay taxes. They are involved in our society. Do we need to make sure that we’ve got the right regulations in place? Of course we do. Do we need to make sure people are safe? Yes, of course we do. And that’s what we’re trying to do here as a city.”

Earlier, Frey said that the sanctuary policy is that police and public officials don’t ask about immigration status and police aren’t in charge of enforcing federal immigration law.

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett