The Democratic mayor of Denver, Mike Johnston, expressed concerns about the impact of illegal immigration on the city, claiming it to be the largest recipient of migrants per capita in the US.
Johnston attributed the situation to Texas, alleging that the state was busing immigrants into Democratic-run “sanctuary cities.”
He emphasized the need for a coordinated federal plan to address the issue, as the city faces potential budget cuts due to the associated costs. (Trending: Donald Trump Breaks His Silence After Major Court Win)
Johnston, along with mayors from New York City and Chicago, called for faster work authorizations for illegal immigrants and highlighted the potential need to reduce services or cut budgets if federal support is lacking.
“We are the single largest recipient of migrants per capita of any city in America,” Johnston said.
Johnston stated that America needs “a coordinated entry plan where it’s not just the governor of Texas deciding what cities to send people to.”
“We’re having that hard conversation with our departments and our city right now. We’d like to avoid that problem,” he added.
“We think if the federal government can take action on the supplemental budget that President Biden has proposed, that would be $14 billion that could help meet this need.”
“And so, we want to avoid having to make those hard trade-offs and we want the federal government to take action,” he said.
“If they don’t, we’ll be looking at a $160 million impact. That’s 10 percent of our entire budget. So, if you imagine cutting all of your city agencies by 10 percent and that would be historic cuts, larger than we’ve seen even in the recession times of the 2009 and 2010 cycle.”
“If there is no federal support, there’s no coordinate entry, there’s no work authorization, then I think cities would have to look at dramatically reducing the amount of services we offered or dramatically cutting our city budgets, which has impacts on other parts of city services,” Johnston pressed.
“On Nov. 21, 2016, the Denver City Council adopted a proclamation declaring the city ‘welcoming and inclusive of all people.’ In August 2017, the mayor signed a City Council bill, the Public Safety Enforcement Priorities Act, that reiterated a 2014 decision that the city and county would not honor ICE holds except as required by law, continue the city of Denver’s policies of employees of not conducting the work of federal immigration enforcement and allow immigrants access to public health and human services programs. The mayor also issued an order to create a legal defense fund for indigent immigrants,” the Denver Post wrote previously.
Additionally, Denver has spent millions to relocate thousands of illegal immigrants to other parts of the US.
“We say, ‘Where do you want to go?’ and then we buy them a ticket, usually by bus, and get them on their way,” Denver Human Services’ Jon Ewing said.
“We feel that it’s the right thing to do to get them to where they actually want to be,” Ewing added.
“If you looked at it in crude financial terms, meaning, if they stayed here for a few weeks and didn’t even want to be here, then we’d be paying to support and shelter them here and they didn’t even want to be here,” he said.
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