Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and members of Colorado’s delegation called on Congress on Thursday to take urgent action to support communities struggling under the weight of a growing crisis caused by surges of immigrants, many fleeing brutal regimes, others seeking to escape economic privation — and crossing the U.S. border illegally.

As of Thursday morning, Denver has welcomed an unprecedented 37,604 immigrants. More than 4,300 are being temporarily fed and sheltered by city taxpayers. The expense has been tremendous: $38 million — and counting.

“Denver, like many cities in America, is a vibrant, thriving city full of generous folks who want to see everyone succeed,” Johnston said. “We are also a city right now that is facing a humanitarian crisis and a fiscal crisis unlike anything we’ve seen in the last 25 years.

“And that is the result of what we know is the ongoing influx of migrant arrivals who are seeking asylum in America and the system that is not adequately helping them to succeed.”

Johnston was joined at the U.S. capitol by U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, as well as U.S. Reps. Jason Crow and Brittany Pettersen.

Early in the crisis, city leaders decided Denver would pay to house or transport immigrants to the city of their choice.

Despite state and federal grants totaling more than $14 million, Denver taxpayers are shouldering the bulk of the costs.

Earlier this month, Johnston warned that the city had reached a breaking point and, if left unabated, the cost to taxpayers could reach up to $180 million this year. One study said that translates to $500 per Denver household. 

The mayor instructed his department heads to find 10% to 15% in cuts.

Traditionally, immigration has been an issue relegated to gateway cities, such as Chicago and New York City, or states that share the U.S. border with Mexico, such as Texas and Arizona. 

Not anymore.

Denver is more than 600 miles from El Paso, Texas, the closest international border.

Officials have speculated that immigrants are drawn to Denver because of its relative proximity to the Mexico border, while others believe the appeal lies in its status as a “sanctuary city.”

Generally speaking, a sanctuary city describes municipalities and counties that establish policies discouraging local law enforcement from reporting an individual’s immigration status to federal authorities. In 2019, Colorado adopted a law whose provisions fall under the broad outlines of what constitutes a “sanctuary” state. The law, signed by Gov. Jared Polis, forbids a law enforcement officer from arresting or detaining an individual based upon a “detainer request” by immigration authorities. 

Two years before, the Denver City Council passed an ordinance that prohibits “city employees from collecting information on immigration or citizenship status; prohibits the sharing of any other information about individuals for purposes of immigration enforcement; and, memorializes predominant practices by prohibiting use of city resources or City cooperation with civil immigration enforcement.”

‘An irrational system’

It’s not just Denver feeling the squeeze.

While Denver appears to be a preferred location, pockets of the crisis have emerged elsewhere in Colorado, with Aurora and Carbondale providing assistance to newly arriving immigrants.

Carbondale — a sleepy mountain town of 6,400 people some 30 miles from Aspen with zero infrastructure to accommodate a large influx — was recently overwhelmed when more than 150 mostly Venezuelan immigrants arrived in search of work.

“Mayors know what it takes and we’ve seen this again and again,” Hickenlooper said. “They are the front lines in some many crises.”

Hickenlooper added: “With immigration, they’re right back on that frontline.”

Johnston — who, along with the mayors of Chicago and New York City, has become the face of the nation’s immigration crisis, at least for cities in America’s interior that are grappling with the challenge — was in Washington, D.C. to advocate for federal assistance at the United States Conference of Mayors’ winter meeting, which runs through Friday.

Johnston echoed what he has previously said would address the crisis: a coordinated entry plan, more federal funding and work authorization.

Bennet endorsed that plan. Broadly speaking, Democrats have focused on what to do with the millions of immigrants who are already in the country illegally, such as by offering them a path to legalization, while Republicans have insisted that the border needs to be first secured.

During the briefing, Democrats briefly talked about border security measures but spent most of the time discussing a path for immigrants who have illegally crossed the border or overstayed their visas to legally work as one way of relieving the pressure on cities, such as Denver.      

“What an irrational system to be one where people are coming here and then there’s no ability for them to work,” Bennet said. “It’s as if the country is insisting that you be on the public dole, insisting that you can’t support your family.”

Work authorization — even for those who qualify for asylum — can take months.

The ability to work, Bennet said, is not just for these immigrants, but “for the benefit of our economy.”

To buoy that argument, Johnston cited a recent analysis by The Denver Gazette that found immigrants working in the U.S. without authorization provide an economic windfall to Colorado.

The costs and benefits of illegal immigration to Colorado can be estimated in several ways.

The Gazette’s analysis relied on research by the Pew Research Center that estimated the size and demographics of the immigrants in Colorado. To calculate the benefits, the analysis assumed that 74.3% of 160,000 immigrants here earn minimum wage — minus 35% to account for the presumption they make less than legal workers and subtracting another 10% for remittances sent abroad. Under this analysis, immigrants pump $2 billion into the state economy.

The analysis also duplicated the estimates conducted by the federal government by examining the main cost drivers of illegal immigration — public safety, education and health care. Under this analysis, illegal immigration costs taxpayers nearly $200 million annually in hard costs.

The analysis, based on data from previous years, does not take into account the surge of immigrants illegally crossing the southern border and ending up in Denver.   

Another way also examines the fiscal impact of illegal immigration on education, health care, incarceration and the welfare costs of their U.S. born children, while factoring in their tax contributions, but excluding their salary as an economic benefit.

Under this methodology, the Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which estimates a higher number of immigrants are living illegally in the country and in Colorado, concluded the cost, which includes policing and judicial expenses, is much larger and outweighs the benefits. FAIR’s analysis puts the cost of illegal immigration to Colorado taxpayers, minimally, at $1.4 billion.

‘We can’t fail’

Denver is one of a handful of democratic-controlled cities that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has targeted with a busing campaign that boasts having shuffled more than 100,000 immigrants out of the Lone Star State to so-called sanctuary cities.

The Republican governor nabbed international headlines when he sent immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard and to Vice President Kamala Harris’ D.C. resident.

To date, Abbott has bused more than 15,700 migrants to Denver since last May. That’s more than the number Abbott has sent to Los Angeles and Philadelphia combined.

Immigration reform has proved to be an intractable problem for decades. The issue was last addressed by former President Ronald Reagan, who in 1986 signed into law a sweeping immigration measure that provided civil and criminal penalties to employers who knowingly hired unauthorized workers, as well as amnesty to roughly three million people. 

Democratic-led governors and their Republican-counterparts have taken jabs at each other for busing immigrants out of their state and into another.

Last year, the mayors of New York City and Chicago criticized Gov. Jared Polis for sending immigrants in Denver to their cities. At the time, Denver had provided 1,900 bus, plane and train tickets for immigrants to travel to more than 100 U.S. cities.

In the 12 months since, that number has ballooned to about 14,000 tickets.

“Immigration is the responsibility of the federal government,” Bennet said. “We can’t fail, blame each other, walk away and say it’s someone else’s responsibility. This is our responsibility.”

Across the political aisle, Rep. Ken Buck, a Republican, squarely put the blame on the party that governs the White House, saying the “unrestricted flow of immigrants into Denver is the direct result of failed Democrat polices.” 

“Healthcare, transportation, and housing are not free in Colorado — unless you’re an immigrant,” he wrote on X in response to The Denver Gazette’s reporting on the health care costs of illegal immigration to Denver. “Taxpaying Coloradans cannot continue to shoulder the costs of Biden’s border crisis while the tax burden and cost of living in America continues to skyrocket.”