Denver Mayor Says City is Strained After Spending $800,000 Supporting Migrants

Denver Mayor Hancock requests support for the migrantsPhoto byTwitter

The city of Denver has opened a third migrant shelter as the number of new arrivals has increased. The mayor also issued an emergency declaration since the city is strained by the arrival of new migrants that arrived on Monday.

Busses with 247 migrants arrived this week and caused the city to open a third shelter.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said:

"So let me be frank, this influx of migrants, the unanticipated nature of their arrival, and our current space and staffing challenges have put an immense strain on city resources to the level that they're on the verge of reaching the breaking point."

The mayor added:

"Denver has been seeing groups of migrants come to our city for the past several months now, which we have been prepared for and expecting. It's been only recently that they've been arriving at the volume and without any type of advance notice."

El Paso, Texas received around a thousand migrants crossing the Texas-Mexican border earlier this week. It’s possible some of them may be in Denver now.

Denver spokesperson Jill Lis said:

“Denver is a very welcoming city. And so that may be something people are hearing and understand and feel like it’s a feasible option for them. People are coming here in challenging situations and just looking for a safe, welcoming place where they might stop.”

According to Fox 31, the city said in a news release:

“With migrants continuing to arrive in Denver, additional capacity is needed in order to ensure basic needs are being met while ensuring the city does not experience a humanitarian crisis of keeping hundreds of unhoused migrants displaced in our city.”

This could be an early sign that more migrants will arrive in Denver and other sanctuary cities. Title 42 ends on December 21 and this will open the floodgates for more migrants to cross the southern border and claim asylum. District Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan gave President Biden five weeks to prepare for this day and that time is fast approaching.

The Denver Post reported approximately 600 migrants have arrived in the city over the past several months. One of the previous arrivals was mentioned here.

With three shelters open, the city should prepare for more migrants coming their way with title 42 ending next week.

You can get more information about the situation in this video:

The city has spent about $800,000 supporting the migrants.

Mayor Hancock requested donations can be made to the following local services here.

Photo byTwitter

Do you think the city of Denver is prepared to support the migrants?