Denver mayor Mike Johnston tells 'Fox & Friends' that city 'close to breaking point' over migrant crisis
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Denver Democratic Mayor Mike Johnson is growing increasingly concerned about the impact of the migrant crisis on his city, as they continue to pour in in large groups.
"I think our city is very close to its breaking point now, and we've been talking to leaders in DC around the country about why we need to take action here," Johnston told Lawrence Jones in an exclusive 'Fox & Friends' interview on January 31, Wednesday.
What does Denver need to continue being a sanctuary city?
While Johnson stated that the city had "successfully welcomed" almost thousands of migrants in 2023, it is in dire need of federal assistance to keep doing the good work.
"I think we have successfully welcomed almost 40,000 migrants in the last year, and we know what it takes to do this successfully. We just need that help, and the things we need are federal dollars, but the most important thing is we need work authorization for folks when they arrive," he continued.
"We need those resources at the border, so you can add more security at the border, so you can help process those asylum claims and so the folks that do arrive here can work."
The gap between the arrival date and the court date for asylum cases creates a period for which the migrants cannot support themselves, and have to be dependent on government aid. This leads to the creation of a fiscal crisis on top of a humanitarian one.
"We are a welcoming city, and we also don't want to cut core city services," said Johnston. "But, right now, we're in this dilemma where we can't get any help from the federal government on work authorization or on controlling entry or on the ability to actually provide resources to cities."
Citizens share Mayor Mike Johnson's concern
Public middle school teacher Priscilla Rahn informed Jones that her institution had 100 students over projection, so one can "imagine the crisis across the entire district."
"We don't have the funds to make sure that we have resources for all of our students. So teachers are scrambling. We have CMAS (Colorado Measures of Academic Success) testing coming up in March, and we don't have enough computers. This is a state mandate, so we're really desperate right now."
Denver resident Vanessa Rutledge was outraged at the situation, saying, "We're waiting for Mayor Johnston, as well as (Gov) Jared Polis, to demand something needs to be done. We want to hear them say, ‘President Biden, stop this now.’"
"I hope people wake up and see that they can do something. And that usually happens that November with the ballot," she later added.
