DENVER — On Monday, Mayor Mike Johnston visited Washington, D.C., to deliver a speech at the Migration Policy Institute’s 21st Annual Law and Policy Conference at Georgetown University.
The mayor's speech before an audience of experts, policymakers, and advocates touted the city’s response to the immigration crisis. But some advocates say it’s not quite the success the mayor portrays.
“We count ourselves in that proud tradition of people who say there is a path to both serve our migrants well and serve our city well,” Johnston said. “And that's what we've done.”
Johnston spoke about Denver’s handling of the immigration crisis and the hard choices it was forced to make, including budget cuts earlier this year.
“We were making cuts across the city that were really dramatic,” Johnston said.
Johnston wants Denver to be a national model.
Earlier this year, he released a "newcomers playbook,” which outlined the best practices leaders in other cities can take to respond to a similar crisis.
“As of tonight, we do not have a single migrant encampment in the city. We don't have folks living unhoused on the streets,” Johnston said. “They are in housing and in work and proactively contributing to the city."
"That is not what our experience has been as advocates,” said Amy Beck, an advocate for people experiencing homelessness.
Beck says the crisis isn't over for many immigrant families.
She said she still hears from new families each week seeking help.
“Families that are living in their cars right now are having a very difficult time. They can't work, they don't have childcare, they don't have the resources that they need,” said Beck.
The city recently announced that its asylum seekers program, which the mayor touted in his speech at Georgetown, will not continue as it exists today. The city says there's no longer a need, with new arrivals down dramatically.
But Beck says there is a need, and she feels the city is ignoring it.
“The mayor is not going to get on camera and say that his initiative was a failure, so I think that he wants to show it as a success, but he's not showing all of the parts of the story,” said Beck.
She says otherwise, the mayor would talk about the city sending immigrants to other cities and states.
"And it's caused a lot of chaos for other cities, and Denver is off the hook,” said Beck. “It doesn't bear any responsibility for the decisions that were made.”
In June, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called Johnston out for sending immigrants to his state.
“We recently learned that the Democrat mayor of Denver has been sending illegal immigrants to Utah without proper notification or approval,” Cox wrote in a statement on social media. “This is completely unacceptable and follows on the failed catch-and-release policy of the Biden administration. Every state has received illegal immigrants, and Utah’s resources are completely depleted.”
The City of Denver confirmed that it bought tickets for immigrants to Salt Lake City.
City officials said many immigrants who came to Denver did not intend for it to be their destination.
The mayor’s office told Denver7 that no one was forced to go anywhere they didn’t want to go.
Johnston said that about $20 million the city was expected to spend on new immigrants next year will go back into the city’s general fund, which can be spent on other services.
“It was actually our newcomers program that financed the expansion of our police force for next year. Newcomers bailed out shortages in our workforce training program. They bailed out shortages in our fire department and in our parks and recreation programs,” Johnston said. “And so, for me, it was a fitting metaphor of what we thought would be a real challenge for the city has been a net benefit.”
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