Introducing the “Newcomer Program Strategy.”
The mayor of Denver is setting aside nearly $90 million to support migrants, regardless of their documentation status.
Mayor Mike Johnston (D) explained the city needed to reallocate funds to support its new residents following the collapse of the bipartisan border deal in Congress.
To fund services for illegal migrants, the Denver Police Department will face an $8.4 million reduction, which accounts for around 2% of their total operating budget. Additionally, the fire department will see a $2.5 million decrease in their budget, which is roughly 0.8% of their operating costs.
Other departments are facing budget cuts, including the Department of Public Health and Environment (1.9%), the Sheriff's Department (2.2%) and the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (3.8%).
Johnston celebrated the plan, calling it the best option for providing services to a growing number of migrants while mitigating the effects of citywide budget cuts.
“After more than a year of facing this crisis together, Denver finally has a sustainable plan for treating our newcomers with dignity while avoiding the worst cuts to city services,” Johnston told reporters. “So many times we were told that we couldn't be compassionate while still being fiscally responsible. Today is proof that our hardest challenges are still solvable, and that together we are the ones who will solve them.”
The city of 710,000 has been struggling for some time due to the ongoing migrant crisis, as The Daily Wire reports:
Denver scrambled earlier this year to find a way to shelter an estimated 40,000 migrants who had arrived in the city over the course of a few months. The mayor took action to help mitigate the strain on migrant shelters by requiring that migrant families leave a shelter after staying for six weeks.
Johnston's office said in January that the migrant influx was “straining capacity” and that “over the past two months, Denver has seen a dramatic uptick in arrivals and is currently sheltering 4,000 people.” The mayor added that the city would need to come up with $100 million to pay for the crisis. Denver, which is a “sanctuary city,” followed up weeks later by booting around 800 migrant families from overcrowded shelters.
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The mayor's office took the biggest hit in budget cuts to help pay for the illegal immigration crisis with a 9.6% reduction in spending. Other city departments taking a budget hit include the City Attorney's Office, Economic Development, Public Health and Environment, and the Public Library, among others.
Denver's “Newcomer Program Strategy,” comes as Colorado voters voice their frustration with the crisis at the U.S. southern border as residents listed immigration as the top issue for the 2024 election in a recent poll.
Although Colorado has become a predominantly blue state, a recent poll revealed that 51% of Coloradans believe that the state's resources are being “overwhelmed” and that new migrants should be turned away.
According to a survey of 632 likely Colorado voters conducted by the Colorado Polling Institute, the majority of respondents attributed the state's migrant crisis to Congress, the Biden administration and Denver's welcoming policies.
Minority voters prefer turning new migrants away by a 17-point margin, while Colorado's white voters narrowly support letting them stay.
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