Published Dec. 1, 2024, Updated Dec. 1, 2024, 2:34 p.m. ET345 Comments
https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.688.0_en.html#fid=goog_917365657
The bill so far for Denver’s sanctuary city policies: $356 million in taxpayer dollars — about $7,900 per migrant, a new study estimates — and the city’s mayor said he would rather go to jail than let any of them be deported.
The Mile-High City has shelled out a full 8% of its 2025 budget caring for the roughly 45,000 migrants who have arrived since 2022, according to an updated report by the Common Sense Institute (CSI).
In addition to funding hotels, transportation and childcare, Denver has dropped $49 million for migrant healthcare and a staggering $256 million into education for more than 16,000 migrant children enrolled in local schools.
In New York City, which has cared for more than 210,000 migrants, the cost of the migrant crisis has been more than $6 billion.
As the city bleeds cash, doctors have said hospitals are at a breaking point and cops are struggling to contain a gang crime wave, yet Democratic Denver Mayor Mike Johnston told 9News he would rather face jail than cooperate with Donald Trump’s mass-deportation plan.
And should Trump try to send outside forces to Denver to round up and deport migrants, he would have city police “stationed at the county line to keep them out” in a “Tiananmen Square moment,” he told Denverite.
In response, incoming border czar Tom Homan told CNN he would be “willing to put” Johnston in jail if he defies federal law to protect migrants – a statement that left host Kasie Hunt visibly stunned.
Sanctuary policies from Denver and the state of Colorado prevent local law enforcement from helping federal officials apprehend and deport undocumented migrants, drawing roughly 45,000 foreign nationals to the city since 2022 — around half of which have stayed in the metro area, CSI estimates.
Denver has slashed services at recreation centers and stopped the planting of spring flower beds to deal with the spiraling costs, and the city has been forced to tap into contingency funds.
One top Denver doctor told Fox News the strain on local hospitals amounts to a “humanitarian crisis,” calling for a bailout from the federal government.345
As migrants have spilled into the suburbs – and with them, members of the brutal Tren de Aragua prison gang. In Aurora — next door to Denver — members of the gang have taken over multiple apartment complexes and are accused of fatal shootings, beatings and a viral caught-on-camera armed home invasion.
Six Colorado counties have voted to sue the state and Democratic Gov. Jared Polis over laws that block their sheriffs from cooperating with ICE.
