Amid rampant illegal immigration that has flooded many cities in the United States, the Democratic mayor of Denver, Colorado, Mike Johnston, maintains that the city will continue to welcome newly arrived illegal immigrants.
Since Biden took office, Denver has taken in more than 38,000 illegal immigrants. Reports indicate that since December 2022, Denver has received approximately 200 migrant arrivals per day. However, Mayor Johnston is not deterred by this inflow of migrants; where he explained to CNBC’s “Cities of Success” that he intends for Denver to be a “welcoming city” to the vast number of people crossing the border illegally.
CNBC host Carl Quintanilla asked the mayor if he thought his city had been too welcoming to the astounding number of illegal immigrants who have flocked to the Colorado capitol. Johnston told the host that the key was striking a “balance.”
“We want to be a welcoming city,” Johnston said. “[But doing that without federal help] requires shared sacrifice, it requires compromise. So, we are both making cuts to city budgets to meet this financial need, and we are making cuts to the amount of services we can provide to the migrants that arrive and to the number of folks that we can serve.”
Many cities around the country that have received thousands of illegal immigrants have had their resources strained while trying to accommodate the influx of migrants. This has led to many localities considering drastic budget cuts, which could slash critical services.
“We are both making cuts to city budgets to meet this financial need, and we are making cuts to the amount of services we can provide to the migrants that arrive and to the number of folks that we can serve,” Johnston added.
He further noted that Denver has “figured out” how to successfully integrate illegal immigrants into the community. However, Johnston said the process is somewhat challenging in the absence of federal assistance.
“We figured out how to run this machine, how to welcome people, get them connected to legal clinics, provide them wrap-around resources,” the mayor continued. “To do that well just requires resources, and so, our challenge is, we can do it well with federal help, we can do it well with more work authorization, we can do it well with a coordinated plan for entry. Without any of those three, the work becomes tougher. But we’ve now doubled down, assuming there’s no federal help coming, and we’re going to figure it out on our own.”
Despite Johnston’s optimism toward the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants in his city, looking at Denver’s financial situation paints a different picture. The American Tribune reported last month that Denver was forced to shut down several migrant shelters amid a $60 million budget deficit.
Reportedly, the city has even asked private property owners to step in and help fill the migrant housing gap. “For ongoing housing, we’re trying to do more and better at the case navigation that gets people directly from shelter opportunities into housing, or into workforce options for normal travel, and so that continues to be our focus and it’s been successful for us over the last five weeks,” Johnston said.
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