As Boston Mayor Michelle Wu departed Capitol Hill on Wednesday, her challenger in this year’s mayoral race, Josh Kraft, said he supported the immigration policy that Wu had defended to congressional Republicans.

In an hours-long hearing, Wu maintained that Boston’s policy of limited cooperation with the federal government on civil immigration enforcement was both legal and beneficial for the city, helping immigrants feel comfortable interacting with local police without fear of deportation.

Kraft supports “Boston’s policy of handling immigrants,” his campaign said in a statement Wednesday night.

That included support for Boston’s Trust Act, the law that directs police to cooperate with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials on criminal matters, such as investigating drug or weapons trafficking or arresting violent offenders, but prohibits police involvement with civil immigration enforcement, such as holding someone at ICE’s request without a criminal warrant.

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To some, it’s known as a sanctuary city policy.

The campaign pointed to Kraft’s statement last week in which he said he “strongly opposes” the mass deportation plan pitched by President Donald Trump and Tom Homan, his acting director of ICE. Kraft denounced Homan’s “inflammatory rhetoric about a city he does not know,” referring to the border chief’s repeated shots at Wu and pledge to “bring hell” to Boston by way of an immigration crackdown.

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“It is outrageous to think about ICE officers raiding schools or places of worship to round up undocumented immigrants who are not engaged in criminal activity,” Kraft said.

“I know these people,” Kraft continued. “I’ve spent my life working with the immigrant community in and around Boston. I know their character and the contributions they make to the city of Boston. I also understand — and have great respect for — the important work that the Boston Police Department and other first responders do every day to keep Boston’s neighborhoods livable for all of our residents.”

In an X post Tuesday, Kraft also said he supported Wu going to Washington, D.C., to defend Boston, but he questioned the use of up to $650,000 in taxpayer funds, as reported by the Boston Herald, spent on a “show trial hearing.”

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Wu was one of four Democratic mayors to appear Wednesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. She was joined by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, all of whom observe some form of sanctuary policy enshrined in local law.

The mayors have put “criminal illegal aliens back onto the streets” to commit violent crimes, U.S. Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican and chair of the committee, insisted.

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Wu and the other mayors pushed back on that and similar claims.

Asked by Comer if Boston is a sanctuary city, Wu replied: “Boston is a safe city.”

“A sanctuary city clause does not mean our city will ever be a safe haven for violent criminals,” Adams said.

Wu used her opening statement to the committee to detail Boston’s recent public safety success, including its lowest homicide rate in decades last year.

Boston is safe, she said, “because all of our residents trust that they can call 911 in the event of an emergency or to report a crime. This federal administration’s approach is undermining that trust.”

The much-hyped hearing, Wu’s first time on the national stage, turned out not to be so much of a show but more of a legal grilling of the mayor and three other city mayors aimed at getting them to admit under oath they weren’t following federal immigration law.