A Chicago alderman said Mayor Brandon Johnson has “no defense” ahead of his congressional testimony on the sanctuary city’s policies. 

“As far as the mayor going to D.C., he’s going like a lamb going to the slaughter,” Chicago Alderman Anthony Napolitano told Fox News Digital.

“There’s no answer for this,” the alderman of Chicago’s 41st ward said about how the city’s policies have impacted residents. “We should not have been a sanctuary city to begin with. You’re punishing taxpayers by using their money to help the illegals.”

Johnson, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston are set to defend their cities’ sanctuary status before Congress on Wednesday.

To add to the city’s compounding problem, police are struggling to attract and retain officers.

“When I became a Chicago police officer, I took the test in 1997, I took it with over 45,000 possible candidates. They can’t get more than 2,000 people to take this job now, or to take the test, to take the job because they’re fearful to take this job,” he said. 

Operation Lone Star

In 2022, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott announced Operation Lone Star to bus migrants to sanctuary cities around the country. Abbott said he was doing it to prevent Texas from shouldering “the burdens imposed by open-border advocates in other parts of the country.”

In Abbott’s controversial program, Texas bussed more than 102,000 migrants to sanctuary cities around the country, with Chicago receiving approximately 51,000 migrants since August 2022.

In recent years, resident frustration has boiled over at city council meetings after elected leaders proposed tax hikes to address the city’s budget deficit, as the city grappled with spending more than half a billion dollars on housing and feeding migrants. 

“The taxpayers are paying for and funding this illegal migrant crisis,” South Side resident Danielle Carter previously told Fox News Digital. “So, therefore, it’s not fair to us because they are taking our resources. They are spending our tax dollars on people who crossed the border illegally. I think everybody who came over here illegally should get deported and come back legally.”

President Donald Trump listens during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (Pool via AP)

Johnson’s hearing on Wednesday is likely to represent a flash point in the ongoing battle between the city and the GOP-controlled U.S. House of Representatives and the Trump administration.

The Trump administration is attempting to strip sanctuary cities of all federal funding, with Chicago receiving approximately $4 billion annually from the federal government.

From left to right, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu are scheduled to testify before Congress. (Getty/AP)

Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the committee’s chair, has accused all four mayors of prioritizing “criminal illegal aliens over the American people.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Johnson’s office for comment.

Fox News’ Joshua Nelson contributed to this report.