Walsh defends Hub immigrants on `Daily Show'

‘It’s the right thing to do to stand up’

Mayor Martin J. Walsh talked up the city’s support for illegal immigrants and talked down President Trump’s ban on some Middle East travelers last night before a national audience on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” last night.

Trump threatened to cut federal funding to sanctuary cities, but Walsh has said that would not stop Boston. Although Boston has not declared itself a sanctuary city, Walsh has promised to shelter illegal immigrants.

“Twenty-eight percent of Bostonians are immigrants,” Walsh said told “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah. “Fortythree percent of them are first-generation, so we’re a city and a country founded by immigrants. My parents came from Ireland. They’re immigrants themselves. So we have a lot of kids in our school system, we have a lot of families in our school system, whether they were brought here by their parents, or born here by parents who are undocumented, it’s the right thing to do to stand up.

“If you want to work on immigration, that’s fine. Go do it. Get the leaders of the Republicans and the Democrats in the Congress and the Senate to come up with some reforms here and some fixing. Don’t threaten people. Two days later we come out with a refugee ban. We’re blocking people at the airports around America,” Walsh said.

Walsh mentioned the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and said halting immigration would not stop terrorists from entering the country.

“You can’t stereotype, saying everyone who comes from a Muslim country or from the seven countries on the list is a terrorist,” he said. “They’re not terrorists. They’re good, hard-working people.”

Walsh said the Trump administration should invest in border agents to make sure those who are deported don’t return.

“My police department in Boston, we’re not going to be immigration police. However if we find someone who commits a serious crime, we don’t want them in our city. We’ll get them through our system and we’ll deport them. They should be deported,” Walsh said. “Every undocumented immigrant, they’re trying to paint them as a criminal, and every Muslim, they’re trying to paint them as a terrorist.”

Noah congratulated Walsh on the turnout at the Patriots victory parade.

“A million people today,” Walsh said. “It was really incredible. I think it’s because it’s No. 5, and the whole country hates us, and they hate Tom Brady. They think he’s really handsome, but they hate him.”