The Johnston administration this month kicked off its “WorkReady” program for immigrants who arrived in Denver after crossing the southern border illegally.

City officials said the program will help the immigrants who have applied for but not yet received asylum to find legal work in the city. The program aims to develop a “talent pipeline” for industries that may be experiencing significant labor shortages, officials added.

Earlier in the year, Mayor Mike Johnston said the city’s response to the illegal immigration crisis will cost $90 million. To help come up with the money, the city implemented budget cuts, including to the Department of Public Safety, by freezing hiring and cutting hours for some services.

Denver Human Services spokesperson Jon Ewing said a prerequisite for admission to “WorkReady” is proof of a completed asylum application, which the city previously assisted immigrants with. By and large, the immigrants at Thursday’s first day of classes are from Venezuela. Ewing said Denver did not ask people’s country of origin when first admitting them.

“We know they’re mostly from Venezuela… If you had a conversation with anyone here, you’d learn that Venezuela is has always been the most common,” Ewing said. “Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, those places have been represented as well, but Venezuela has been the vast majority for sure.”

City officials handed out laptops to immigrants as a means for the city to keep in touch and give them the ability to find work and other resources, Ewing said. The AT&T Foundation donated about 700 laptops, he said, and the city is also working to get each family at least one Regional Transportation District pass.

Denver voters have blamed the Biden administration, Denver’s immigrant policies and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s busing campaign to so-called “sanctuary cities” in Democratic strongholds. Starting in the spring of 2022, Abbott has bused more than 117,000 immigrants — including more than 18,000 to Denver — out of Texas to six cities.

Officials in El Paso, Texas, however, have pointed the finger at free shelter and tickets for onward travel in Denver as a major draw for the immigrants. Denver recently doubled down on those policies by offering immigrants, at taxpayers’ expense, six months of rental, food and utility assistance, a computer, prepaid cell phone and metro bus passes.

The immigrants who joined Thursday’s classes have begun an asylum application. They are permitted to remain in the United States while their claim is pending, but the process is long and there is no guarantee their applications will ultimately be granted.

Ewing estimated the applications could take as long as five years.

Adeeb Khan, executive director of the Denver Economic Development & Opportunity, said the program offers an opportunity to create a talent pipeline for industries that desperately need workers.

“WorkReady is really an opportunity for us to be able to provide newcomers and immigrants into Denver an opportunity to get some skills, some credentials, and some training that will help them to be able to enter the workforce and become self-sustainable,” he said. “Overwhelmingly, the response we hear from our business partners is the desire to hire individuals.”

Many of the people at Thursday’s classes worked in jobs like construction in their home country, Khan said. In that capacity, he said they may have operated heavy machinery that requires a certification in the U.S., which WorkReady will help them get.

Edixson Gonzalez, among the 350 who are in the program, is one of those prospective construction workers. He came to Colorado on April 10, and, speaking through a translator, said he was lucky to know about the program and its benefits.

“This is an open door for me to continue my career and I am looking forward to going into the construction industry and getting more knowledge, certifications and taking more courses,” he said. “I’m so grateful for this opportunity and willing to do everything in my power to make my goals come true.”

Gonzalez said the family members he still has in Venezuela do not have these kinds of opportunity and he expressed gratefulness for the program.

Khan also insisted it is imperative for the city and businesses to “embrace immigration” and praised the work ethic of immigrants.

The city must prioritize building better systems to help immigrants get work authorization, and then get those certifications to find gainful employment, he said, adding that new workers in the construction industry would help to build more affordable housing.

Since January 2023, the city has taken in almost 42,300 immigrants. About half moved on to other cities, while half likely remained in Denver. By one estimate, the immigration crisis has cost the Denver metro area about $340 million, while the City and County of Denver said it has spent $71 million since December 2022.

Ewing, the human services spokesperson, insisted the city is not “going on a spending spree.”

“We haven’t spent anywhere near that kind of amount of money yet,” he said of the $90 million spending estimate for this year alone. “But we do have some contracts coming through and you’ll see that actualized in the budget.”

“We do not aim to get to $90 million,” he added. “We are trying to be very frugal.”