CHICAGO – On Wednesday, March 5, 2025, Mayor Johnson delivered opening remarks before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Below are Mayor Johnson’s remarks, as prepared:  

Thank you Chairman Comer, Ranking Member Connolly, and Members of the Committee.   

     I have the great privilege and honor of serving as the Mayor of Chicago, the third largest city in the nation.  Established by a Black Haitian man and a Potawatomi woman, Chicago is and always has been a proud city of immigrants. Generations of new arrivals, including the descendants of the enslaved during the Great Migration, created a vibrant city where one in five residents is foreign-born.  Each day, I wake up to serve every one of Chicago’s 77 unique neighborhoods and those who live in our great City.  

     As Mayor of Chicago, nothing is more important to me than the safety and wellbeing of all our residents.  Since I was elected, my administration has been laser-focused on creating and implementing public safety initiatives that protect all Chicagoans.   

• We launched the People’s Plan for Community Safety, which builds trust between communities and law enforcement by prioritizing transparency and violence intervention.   
• We established a dedicated robbery task force that reduced robberies by 25% citywide.  
• We’ve added over 200 detectives, increasing the clearance rates on our cases.   
• And we’ve updated police equipment and technology so that our police officers have the tools they need to effectively prevent and fight crime.   

     Our efforts to improve public safety by building trust with and investing in our communities are working.  Violent crime is down in Chicago. The City ended 2024 with its lowest homicide rate in five years.    

The City is also safer because of our Welcoming City Ordinance.  That law makes sure that the City’s police resources are focused on our local priorities.  

     In fact, for forty years, Chicago’s leaders have recognized that our policies toward civil immigration matters help to prevent and solve crimes.  Put simply, any actions that amplify fears of deportations make Chicago more dangerous.  Those fears cause witnesses and victims to avoid cooperating with police.  The cooperation of all people, regardless of their immigration status, is essential to achieving the City’s goals of reducing crime and pursuing justice for victims.  When there is trust between the City’s residents and the police, undocumented immigrants come forward to report crimes to local law enforcement and provide information that helps the police solve those crimes.  

     Now, I know that there are myths about these laws.  But we must not let mischaracterizations and fearmongering obscure the reality that Chicago’s crime rates are trending down.  We still have a long way to go, but sensationalizing tragedy in the name of political expediency is not governing; it’s grandstanding.  Every violent crime is devastating, but scapegoating entire communities is not only misleading, it is unjust, and it is beneath us.   

 So let me be clear:   

• Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance and our other laws and policies do not lead to more crime.   
• They do not prevent cooperation with federal law enforcement on criminal matters.   
• We do not “harbor” criminals; we arrest them, often because of laws that allow all residents to feel safe helping the police.   

     As Mayor, I am building a Chicago that embodies the dream my father had when he came from Sallis, Mississippi during the Second Great Migration.  A Chicago that invests in housing, healthcare, jobs, and education.  That’s why we’ve:  

• Increased access to safe and stable housing by adding almost 4,000 units;   
• Expanded access to healthcare by opening three new mental health centers;   
• And focused on getting our young people well-paying jobs, with summer jobs increasing by 45% since I took office.  

     Our local partnerships have built a solid foundation for a better, stronger, and safer Chicago.  We need your support for these efforts.  We are ready to partner with you on the measures we know promote trust and create sustainable public safety.  

     To the people of Chicago, and all the hardworking people across this great nation, these values are our North Star; the drinking gourd we follow to a better future.  We will not go back.   

I look forward to answering the Committee’s questions.  

###