Comes as mayor announces $90 million of city’s budget, including essential services, being diverted to service illegal aliens in sanctuary city.
Democrat Denver Mayor Mike Johnston dismissed criticisms of his move to divert city budget resources to illegal aliens, claiming the sanctuary city aims to be “welcoming” for illegal aliens, but that “requires shared sacrifice.”
“We want to be a welcoming city” but doing that without federal help “requires shared sacrifice, it requires compromise. So, we are both making cuts to city budgets to meet this financial need, and we are making cuts to the amount of services we can provide to the migrants that arrive and to the number of folks that we can serve,” he told CNBC in an interview from February that aired on Thursday.
When asked to respond to critics who argue Denver has been too generous to illegal aliens, Johnston said his initiatives to cut city budget services for them is “a balance.”
“We think it’s a balance. We want to be a welcoming city where you don’t have a woman with a 2-year-old and a 3-year-old sleeping outside in a tent in ten-degree weather in a snowstorm,” he said. “That’s one of our values. And we also want to be able to provide high-quality public services to all the taxpayers. That’s also one of our values. And in this context, without any federal support, to do both of those things requires shared sacrifice, it requires compromise.”
“So, we are both making cuts to city budgets to meet this financial need, and we are making cuts to the amount of services we can provide to the migrants that arrive and to the number of folks that we can serve,” he added.
Johnston this week announced he’s diverting $90 million of Denver’s budget to help illegal aliens, including defunding essential services like its police and fire departments by $45 million.
BREAKING: Denver Mayor (D) announces he’s diverting $90 million of the city’s budget to service “newcomers” aka illegals, and blames it on Republicans.
Democrats made Denver a sanctuary city in 2017.
Democrats control Colorado and passed progressive immigration policies in… pic.twitter.com/GbGdnYtsDe
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 11, 2024
Denver a longtime “sanctuary city” has announced it is defunding both its Police Department and Fire Department by $45M to fund programs for illegal immigrants. pic.twitter.com/bMJUZnFB2m
— @amuse (@amuse) April 13, 2024
Johnston said in February that the city had reached a “breaking point” with illegals as overcrowded migrant shelters began to evict them.
In response, the city last month began asking residents to take in the “newcomers.”
One Democrat city official was even caught on camera begging illegal aliens to consider leaving the jurisdiction for other sanctuary cities that have more resources.
