Busload of migrants is dropped off at state Capitol in Denver

A busload of migrants was dropped off outside the Colorado Capitol building in Denver on Monday morning in what a city official believes is the latest in a wave of buses chartered by the Texas state government.

It’s unclear how many people were on the bus. Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat who was at the Capitol as the bus was unloading about 8:30 a.m., estimated the number of people onboard at 40 to 50. She directed them into the building to get warm while officials coordinated the next steps.

Gonzales said some of the migrants told her they’d come from Eagle Pass, a Texas town near the border with Mexico. Evan Dreyer, a deputy chief of staff to Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, said he hadn’t received confirmation about the circumstances of the bus trip but that it matched a recent pattern of buses arriving from the border state.

“The state of Texas, the governor’s office, has contracted with two or three different bus companies to transport migrants out of Texas to various locations around the country, Denver being one of those locations,” Dreyer said. “That’s our understanding, and that’s how this has operated for several months. Denver has received more than 200 charter buses direct from Texas over the last six months.”

Spokespersons for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott were not immediately available for comment.

Gonzales said the migrants she spoke to told her they were from Venezuela. More than 29,000 migrants, primarily from Venezuela, have arrived in Denver since December 2022, after groups of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border began overwhelming Texas cities. Many of the migrants have fled widespread violence and economic instability in the South American country, often traveling through Central America on foot.

Dreyer said city officials repeatedly have requested that arriving buses take migrants to Union Station or a city intake center, but those requests have been ignored. Migrants have been dropped off near city and county buildings, though Dreyer said he believed Monday was the first time people have been left at the state Capitol.

The migrants were later directed to the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office a few blocks away, Dreyer said.

Gonzales praised city officials for their work in helping migrants in recent months.

But Dreyer criticized the decision to drop the migrants in Denver without coordination or cold-weather clothing. Temperatures in Denver were in the low to mid-40s Monday morning.

“These are folks who have come from the Texas border after long journeys, and they are not prepared for cold weather,” he said. “And to drop them off like that, just randomly, in the cold — in the freezing cold — is inhumane, dangerous and it puts their lives at risk. It’s shameful.”

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