Denver’s liberal government has asked officials at border towns to distribute fliers telling asylum seekers to stay away from the Colorado capital, after 21,000 new migrants arrived this year.
Like various liberal cities like Chicago and NYC, the Mile High city has been struggling with migrants being bused north by conservative governors trying to make a point about what they say are open-border Democratic policies. The city currently has about 2,510 migrants staying in temporary shelters and has spent about $26 million on the crisis.
Matthew Mueller, the executive director for the Office of Emergency Management, has asked officials in Brownsville, El Paso, Houston, and Dallas to let migrants know Denver ‘can no longer provide the same level of sheltering resources to newly arriving persons.’
The fliers include messages such as: ‘Denver’s resources have been exhausted,’ ‘the city cannot provide shelter long-term’ and ‘housing in Denver is very expensive and there aren’t many affordable housing options available.’
Denver follows the move of fellow sanctuary city New York, which has also sent fliers to the border warning migrants that they will not be given free housing in the Big Apple – and telling them to go somewhere more affordable, as the sanctuary city has been overwhelmed by 116,000 new arrivals in just 18 months.
Denver’s liberal government has asked officials at border towns to distribute fliers telling asylum seekers to stay away, after 21,000 new migrants arrived this year
The fliers include messages such as: ‘Denver’s resources have been exhausted’
Migrants heading north line up to take a boat in Bajo Chiquito in the Darien province of Panama, Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023, after walking across the Darien Gap from Colombia
Back in January, mayor Eric Adams accused Colorado’s Democrat governor Jared Polis of launching an ‘unfair’ plan to send an influx of migrants to the Big Apple. According to The Colorado Sun, more than 18,400 migrants have come to Denver since Christmas., 2022 – and 6,739 of them were bused to other cities like Chicago and New York.
In its attempt to mitigate the crisis, Denver’s local government announced last week plans to limit the length of time individual migrants can stay in temporary shelters, while extending the time limit for families.
The city has also asked for assistance from the Colorado National Guard, but because there is no state of emergency declared, state officials sent civilian employees instead, as reported by The Denver Post.
‘Over the past week the daily average of new arrivals is nearly 300,’ city officials said this week, ‘These unprecedented numbers are up sharply from even mid-September, when the daily average of newcomers to Denver was 125 and the shelter population was 1,200.’
Liberal cities like Denver have been making U-turns when it comes to their acceptance of new migrants.
Denver’s local government announced last week plans to limit the length of time individual migrants can stay in temporary shelters, while extending the time limit for families
The city has also asked for assistance from the Colorado National Guard
The city currently has about 2,510 migrants staying in temporary shelters and has spent about $26 million on the crisis
New York City Mayor Eric Adams traveled to Mexico this week to discourage asylum seekers from traveling to the city because it is ‘at capacity.’
On Tuesday, the desperate mayor also pleaded with a judge to end the city’s longstanding ‘right to shelter’ law, asking that it be void in a state of emergency.
The city has been moving to suspend the policy for months under the surge of migrants, arguing the requirement was never intended to be applied to a humanitarian crisis such as the latest influx.
Adams plea and his trip to Mexico to discourage migrants shows a stunning reversal to the start of the crisis when he went to the Port Authority to welcome a bus full of asylum seekers sent from Texas by Republican governor Gregg Abbot.
At the time Abbot argued progressive cities should also bear the costs of the influx of asylum seekers crossing the southern border.
Chicago has received over 8,000 migrants since August, and the city’s leaders have warned of a humanitarian crisis unfolding, with officials saying daily arrivals in the Windy City have increased tenfold over the last weeks. Asylum seekers have been sleeping in airports and police stations as the sanctuary city’s shelters are out of room.
Governor JB Pritzker and mayor Brandon Johnson wrote a letter to president Biden saying the situation has overwhelmed the city an its ability to help the asylum seekers. They are asking the federal government for financial aid and to waive fees for migrants’ work authorization.
‘Double the number of Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Chicago. The difference is that those Ukrainian refugees have federal dollars to follow them. We are not seeing that with Venezuelan refugees,’ said 35th Ward Alderman Carlos Ramirez Rosa, according to ABC7.
Border crossings continue to increase – preliminary data obtained by found Border Patrol agents last month recorded an estimated 210,000 apprehensions
September’s apprehension tally is the highest since Dec 2022 when 222,000 migrants were apprehended
Like New Yorkers, Chicago residents have opposed turning landmarks into emergency shelters, with some even asking city officials to close the city’s borders as mayor Johnson quietly signed a $29million contract with a security firm to build migrant base camps.
Liberal elite hub Martha’s Vineyard, one of the sanctuary cities chosen by conservative governors to bus migrants to, also said has said it has no room for asylum seekers in the billionaire enclave.
Last year, director of homelessness Lisa Belcastro claimed 50 migrants flown in by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis would have to go elsewhere. The asylum seekers were put on a bus by liberal Governor Charlie Baker, and given a police escort to Joint Base in Cape Cod 32 miles away from Martha’s Vineyard.
El Paso’s democrat mayor Oscar Leeser has also sent thousands to sanctuary cities last year, with Adams asking him to stop.
And this week the Biden administration backtracked on its rejection of a border wall,
In a shock announcement on Wednesday night, the Department of Homeland Security said it’s waiving 26 federal laws to start constructing a new ‘physical barrier’ that was started under Donald Trump.
The Biden White House has consistently slammed Trump’s tough migration policy and even cancelled the wall construction when Biden took office.
Meanwhile border crossings continue to increase – preliminary data obtained by found Border Patrol agents last month recorded an estimated 210,000 apprehensions – the third highest number on record.
September’s apprehension tally is the highest since Dec 2022 when 222,000 migrants were apprehended, the second-highest monthly figure on record.
The 2023 fiscal year, which concludes at the end of September, saw two million illegal migrants intercepted crossing the border, according to data seen by CBS News. That is the second highest annual figure on record.
