DENVER — In a new memo issued Monday, the U.S. Small Business Administration says it will work on "relocating regional offices out of sanctuary cities," with Denver potentially being on the chopping block due to its immigration enforcement policies.
The memo was issued by SBA administrator Kelly Loeffler. In it, she outlined her "top priorities for the agency," among them, the directive to pull those offices from cities whose policies have limited cooperation with federal immigration authorities in the past.
The memo says "to better serve Main Streets across America, especially in rural areas, SBA will relocate regional offices currently based in sanctuary cities to less costly, more accessible locations in communities that comply with federal immigration law. Additionally, Administrator Loeffler commits to personally visiting SBA’s regional offices and district offices — to facilitate a continuous dialogue with small business owners and hear directly from local job creators about real-world challenges and opportunities to support growth and innovation."
The Region VIII office is currently located in Denver, and while the city has never officially called itself a "sanctuary city", the federal government has deemed it one — potentially putting the Region VIII office in Denver in limbo.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston is also one of four major city mayors who've been called to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in March as part of an investigation into "sanctuary cities" across the country.
Denver
Mayor Johnson to testify before Congress about Denver’s ‘sanctuary city’ status
For those who've benefited from the SBA and its resources, waiting to see what happens next is all they can do.
"I actually would like to see what happens," said Christine Herron, the Co-owner of the Achieve Sports Complex. "I'm hopeful that it will all work itself out, and that, you know, things will be brighter overall as a result of some of the changes."
Herron and her husband opened Achieve Gymnastics back in 2013.
"Just being us and not having a lot of capital to back us, we could not have made the move to start our own business without the support of the SBA, and we got a 504 loan at that time."
Years later the Herron's decided they wanted to expand their business and open what is now the Achieve Sports Center, which was possible due to help from the SBA.
"In addition to that, by wanting to do this massive expansion project, we definitely needed the SBA's backing with both a 504 loan and a 7(a) loan," Herron said.
Nathan Weirsum, the owner of Rustic Nomads, also received help to start his business from SBA resources.
"I did a program with a Small Business Development Center in Aurora, and they really helped me out with getting a really nice business plan put together, which was kind of the most intimidating part, because I needed some funding to get the food truck all together," Weirsum said.
"I didn't feel confident enough with it, and so I took one of their classes and just really worked through their whole spreadsheet that they had for me in the outline, and I was really able to develop one that I was confident enough with, and it helped me secure the loan that I needed to make this a reality," he added.
Weirsum's started the Rustic Nomads food truck back in 2020. Since then he's been able to cultivate a group of places where he can park the truck and sell his burgers and sandwiches to customers.
"I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for them," Weirsum said of the Small Business Development Center in Aurora where he got help. "It really was top notch, and I appreciated everything they did."
Denver7 reached out to officials with the SBA Region VIII office but didn't hear back by deadline.
We also reached out to several SBA development centers. The Colorado Small Business Development Center Network provided the following statement.
The Colorado Small Business Development Center Network (SBDC) is a resource partner of the SBA and we are focused on our mission of supporting all small businesses in Colorado.
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