One month after an aide for Denver mayor Mike Johnston was caught on camera begging Venezuelan migrants to leave, the city is now holding itself up as a model for its handling of the migrant crisis and has published a “Newcomer Playbook” for other communities to follow.
“We are thrilled that you are interested in creating a welcoming environment for migrants in your city,” the playbook’s introduction reads. “As part of Denver’s welcoming approach, we use the term ‘newcomers’ to refer to migrants, recognizing that they are new to our city and embracing more inclusive language.”
The playbook was published on Friday, one month after Johnston’s political director, Andres Carrera, was caught on camera telling a group of migrants in a Denver shelter that the city “ran out of resources” and that they would “suffer” if they stayed in Denver.
“The opportunities are over,” Carrera told the group in Spanish, as the city was kicking people out of its shelters. “New York gives you more. Chicago gives you more. So, I suggest you go there where there is longer-term shelter. There are also more job opportunities there.”
In a prepared statement promoting the playbook, Johnston said that “despite the federal government failing to support our cities, Denver has led by building sustainable systems that help newcomers get back on their feet and turning a crisis into opportunity.”
The 25-page playbook offers 15 recommended steps for managing an influx of migrants, including establishing an intake center, documenting key policies and procedures, setting up temporary shelters, establishing public and private funding, and tracking expenditures.
The playbook says that effective communication is “essential” to create a “welcoming and inclusive environment” and to ensure that the migrants “feel supported and connected.” Cities with an influx of migrants should consider facilitating “opportunities for newcomers to connect with each other and with established residents,” encouraging the formation of social groups, and promoting “local initiatives that foster a sense of belonging,” the playbook says.
While critics have argued that the migrant crisis is a drain on the city’s and the region’s resources, Denver’s playbook makes the case that the migrants will spur economic growth and cultural enrichment. “Newcomers bring diverse skills, experiences, and entrepreneurial spirit, which can enhance a city’s economy,” the playbook says, adding that they also “bring cultural diversity to the city, enriching the local arts, food, and traditions.”
The playbook also touts Denver’s policy of offering arriving migrants onward transportation to other destinations. But that policy has received pushback from Democrats in other states, and has been pointed at as one reason that so many migrants have chosen to travel to Denver in the first place.
A recent report in the Denver Gazette suggested that Denver’s welcoming posture, including its offer of free shelter and onward travel, resulted in a “pull factor” that helped to make Denver a desirable location for migrants coming over the southern border.
New York mayor Eric Adams, former Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, and Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker are among the blue-state leaders who have said that Denver’s policy of sending migrants to their cities has been “unhelpful,” according to a February report in the Chicago Sun-Times. Lightfoot told the paper that Colorado’s strategy of bussing migrants to Chicago was “the crassest form of politics that I think I’ve experienced in quite a long time.”
Pritzker said he told Colorado governor Jared Polis that “we can do the same thing back,” though he added that “we’re not going to. This is not how we should be operating.”
Despite the playbook’s happy talk about economic growth, the migrant crisis has been a financial drag on the city. Johnston expects to spend almost $90 million on the city’s immigration response this year, and recently asked the city council to cut $45.5 million from the annual budget to pay for it. While most city agencies are prepping for cuts, the biggest hit, over $17 million, is expected to come from public safety departments – including the police and fire departments and the Denver sheriff.
A recent analysis by Colorado’s Common Sense Institute found that the migrant crisis has cost the Denver region at least $170 million, which includes not only city spending but costs incurred by schools and hospitals. That estimate is almost surely an undercount.
DJ Summers, the institute’s research director, told National Review that it’s true that Denver’s economy will grow as the population increases. “But that depends on the A., being able to work, and B., being able to find work,” he said, noting that most of the migrants who’ve arrived in Denver are not yet authorized to work. “In the meantime, they’re costing us $170 million.”
The cuts to public safety are particularly concerning, he said.
“Denver used to be one of the safest cities in the country. Now, it has slipped dramatically,” he said. “When you’re slashing items out of a public safety budget amid a climate that already has very sharp eyes on you for an unsafe environment, it just doesn’t help.”
Summers said he was struck by how much the newcomer playbook resembles the city’s proposals for addressing homelessness.
“It looks as though Denver is very firmly marketing itself as a destination” for migrants, he said.
While Denver leaders have generally touted their open-arms approach to the migrant crisis, leaders in several neighboring communities have taken steps to shield their residents from the worst of it. Some are refusing to use their resources to shelter migrants and have passed resolutions asserting that they are non-sanctuary cities and counties.
Douglas County, south of Denver, recently passed an ordinance making it against the law for commercial vehicles to drop off people unannounced within the county’s borders. Douglas County leaders are also suing the state, alleging that state laws passed by Democrats that limit the ability of local governments to coordinate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials violate the state constitution.