Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams is headed to Capitol Hill with the “upper hand” over four other big-city leaders Wednesday as they prepare to face a congressional grilling over “sanctuary” policies that protect illegal aliens and complicate federal immigration enforcement, according to the founder of a pro-police nonprofit.

The hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday is expected to also include testimony from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston.

Unlike the others, Adams is a former police captain and has publicly said he plans to work with the Trump administration to fight migrant crime.

“Criminal alien predators should not be free to roam our communities,” said Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican and the committee’s chair. “State and local governments that refuse to comply with federal immigration enforcement efforts should not receive a penny of federal funding. President Trump and his administration are rightfully taking action against sanctuary cities.”

“ICE agents would specifically be focused on assisting the correctional intelligence bureau in their criminal investigations, in particular those focused on violent criminals and gangs,” Adams said at the time.

That’s a commonsense move, according to Imperatrice, because regulations that prevent law enforcement agencies from working together do nothing to improve public safety.

“There are legitimate arguments that could be made that city police departments investigating crimes don’t want to be viewed as immigration enforcement in order to gain trust and get information about crimes in immigrant communities,” said Thad Bingel, a former Department of Homeland Security official from the George W. Bush administration. “But no one is asking local police departments to conduct immigration raids or go out and enforce federal immigration laws, which is a federal responsibility of DHS.”

ICE is conducting flights to remove illegal immigrants from the U.S. and back to their home countries. (ICE Seattle)

Sheltering Biden-era migrants cost New York taxpayers about $7 billion, Adams has said, with little relief from the former occupant of the White House.

Adams said in January that the city would work with ICE as part of Trump’s nationwide crackdown on criminal illegals, even with sanctuary laws in place in the state and city.

“There ought to be a commonsense middle ground here that if you expect federal grants for your city, then at a bare minimum, when you have a criminal alien in custody for a crime, someone wanted by ICE, that you contact ICE and hold them in custody for some small amount of time until they can be picked up by federal officer,” Bingel said. “That is just common sense and a basic level of expected cooperation.”

Violating a state sanctuary law cost nearby Suffolk County $60 million in December. U.S. District Judge William Kuntz, nominated by then-President Barack Obama in 2011, awarded the damages to illegal aliens who were held on ICE detainers at the county jail.

The Trump administration followed up with a lawsuit against New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and state Attorney General Letitia James for allegedly using state sanctuary laws to shield illegal immigrants from federal immigration enforcement.

ICE and ERO officers detain one of 216 illegal immigrants who have been convicted of drug dealing or drug possession. Around 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the United States have deportation orders against them, a U.S. official said. (Todd Packard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE))

“It’s very important that [in] today’s day and age, we get past this Democrat and Republican nonsense and get on the same page, do things for the right reasons for the people that are asking for it,” Imperatrice said. “People want public safety. They want a good quality of life, and they don’t care if it’s a Democrat or Republican that enacts it.”

Trump and Adams can put that idea to the test.

Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report.