With New York City bearing the greatest burden of the nation’s migrant crisis, Mayor Eric Adams was expected to be a focus of the House oversight hearing on so-called sanctuary cities.
But throughout the contentious Republican-led session on Wednesday with four big city mayors, Mr. Adams was treated like a sideshow, his discomfort visible.
The toughest treatment the mayor received was from his fellow Democrats. Three called for his resignation. Several grilled him over whether he had agreed to a quid pro quo with the Trump administration that would allow the federal corruption indictment to be dropped if he cooperates with the president’s immigration crackdown.
Mr. Adams repeatedly defended himself, contending that he shared certain views with Mr. Trump on elements of his immigration agenda, including deporting immigrants who are accused of violent crimes.
“There’s no deal,” Mr. Adams said. “No quid pro quo. And I did nothing wrong.”
Republican lawmakers were far kinder to the mayor, with some, including the committee chair, James Comer, noting Mr. Adams’s willingness “to work with ICE on detaining the most criminal illegals, and I want to publicly thank you for that.”
And when Representative Robert Garcia, Democrat of California, asked Mr. Adams if he had sold out New Yorkers by cooperating with Tom Homan, Mr. Trump’s so-called border czar, Mr. Homan came to the mayor’s defense on social media.
Mr. Homan called such assertions “simply disgusting,” adding that Mr. Adams was “trying to protect New Yorkers from violent illegal aliens” and that “by working with ICE, lives will be saved.”
The mayor faced a delicate balancing act at the hearing. As a Democrat who faces a challenging re-election bid this year, Mr. Adams sought to avoid the appearance of being beholden to Mr. Trump, while not saying anything that would anger the president.
But there was nothing nuanced about the way the Democrats on the panel viewed Mr. Adams.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a fierce critic, confronted him at the hearing and raised concerns about the quid pro quo accusations and his efforts to dodge her questions.
“This right here is the four-alarm fire that everyone must be paying attention to,” she said.
Representative Dave Min, Democrat of California, pressed Mr. Adams to resign and questioned why he had not done so already. Mr. Garcia also called for him to step down for “selling New Yorkers out.”
“I personally agree with a majority of New Yorkers and think, Mr. Mayor, that you should resign,” Mr. Garcia said. “You should do the right thing: You should step down and resign today.”
Mr. Adams was questioned about his conversations with Mr. Trump and his administration, but said he could not discuss any details of those conversations while a federal judge, Dale E. Ho of Federal District Court in Manhattan, was making a decision about his criminal case.
Mr. Adams told the panel that his criminal defense lawyer was Alex Spiro, but he was accompanied by a different lawyer from the legal firm Norton Rose. The lawyer, who sat behind Mr. Adams and repeatedly privately offered advice, was hired by the city to represent its interests, according to the mayor’s office.
Before the hearing began, Democrats held a rally outside City Hall in Manhattan to express support for immigrants. Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker who is considering running for mayor against Mr. Adams, said the mayor should do more to protect immigrants.
“We should have a mayor who understands what makes New York City special,” she said.
Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate, said after the hearing that Mr. Adams missed an opportunity to “stand up to hateful rhetoric and harmful policies” and called him an “embarrassment on a national stage.”
“His presence and silence gave credibility to the lies of conservative officials,” he said.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who has called on Mr. Adams to resign or be removed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, said after the hearing that the mayor’s testimony raised “more questions than answers.” She said that it was notable how “gentle” her Republican colleagues were with him compared with the other mayors and that his coordination with the Trump administration was “tremendously concerning.”
Mr. Adams, a former police officer, told reporters before the hearing that Mr. Trump did not influence his views on immigration. Mr. Adams has said that he opposed mass deportations, but wants the City Council to weaken the city’s sanctuary laws.
“There are those that are going to try to attempt to state that the life that I’ve lived is based on a new administration — it is not,” he said, adding: “Three things stay on my mind all the time: public safety, public safety, public safety.”
Ana Ley and Maya C. Miller contributed reporting.
