Two years ago, the capital of Colorado was overwhelmed by illegal migrants bussed up from the southern border to the self-declared sanctuary city. Now neighboring communities are passing ordinances to manage the overflow into nearby suburbs.
In December 2022, then-Denver Mayor Michael Hancock declared a state of emergency as the city braced for the crisis arriving on Coloradans’ doorstep after fewer than 250 illegally present foreign citizens turned up at local homeless shelters.
“Let me be frank: This influx of migrants, the unanticipated nature of their arrival and our current space and staffing challenges, have put an immense strain on city recourses to the level where they’re on the verge of reaching a breaking point at this time,” said Hancock. “What I don’t want to see is a local humanitarian crisis of unsheltered migrants on our hands because of a lack of resources.”
In 2017, Hancock signed legislation to codify Denver’s resistance to working with federal officials to enforce immigration laws. The Colorado Sun reported last week Denver taxpayers spent $63 million to shelter the more than 40,000 new arrivals over the last 15 months. The office of Denver’s mayor elected last spring, Mike Johnston, said the city may spend up to $180 million to confront the crisis this year.
“Denver is closing all migrant hotel shelters but one, a signal that services are winding down,” the Sun reported, meaning a closure of six hotels operating as shelters. “The decision comes as the number of daily arrivals has
