Democrat Denver Mayor Mike Johnston sparked backlash this week after openly stating he’s “not bothered” by the presence of illegal immigrants in the city, even as local residents bear the brunt of the financial and social strain. As Denver grapples with rising costs, overwhelmed public services, and strained housing resources, many taxpayers are questioning the mayor’s priorities, who appears to be more concerned with accommodating illegal aliens than addressing the needs of his own residents.
During a Friday interview on Colorado Public Radio’s “Colorado Matters,” Johnston defended illegal immigration by claiming it's a human response anyone might make in desperate circumstances. He also admitted that Denver has, at times, redirected resources away from residents, such as closing recreation centers temporarily, to support those in the country illegally.
Co-host Ryan Warner pointed out that the Democratic Mayor doesn’t seem to share the same frustration of his residents who are disturbed that someone can enter the United States illegally and stay, using American resources.
In response, Johnston said those who come into the U.S illegally are only doing so out of survival and desperation. He argued that there is a human side to illegal immigration and challenged the idea that people in such situations are doing something wrong.
I was a school principal before this. I had a lot of students who had this experience, and they were kids who were 17 and would tell me, a student of mine…when he was three years old, when his dad was one of the people in his town who spoke out against the local cartels and the cartels came in the middle of the night and murdered his dad. And so, his mom put him in a car that morning and just drove and drove and drove and drove until they got to Denver. That’s where he’s been since then, and when he came through high school and wanted to go to college, he wasn’t documented, went back to Mexico, the only way he could do it was go back and apply. So, he’d spent months hiding from the cartels who were still looking for him to become a citizen, and the first thing he does when he gets his papers is come back home and enlist in the U.S. Army because he wants to give something back to the country that’s given him so much. I think these are the stories of families that come here, and I don’t think any of us in most of those circumstances would do anything different.
Last August, I reported on the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua taking over apartment buildings in Colorado. Mayor Johnston defended their actions, dismissing concerns about a link between illegal immigration and crime, even amid multiple reports of offenses committed by undocumented immigrants during President Joe Biden’s administration.
He claimed, "Historically, it’s always true that we have lower levels of crime around migrants than we do among our general population.” The mayor suggested there is a misconception that illegal immigrants are more dangerous and cause more trouble.