Denver City Council is preparing for a new mayor to take over from outgoing Mayor Michael Hancock. To ensure the mayor gets off in the right direction, they are sending a similar letter they sent to Mayor Hancock. One key point is how the mayor support migrants who arrived from Texas over the past few months.
The first bus of migrants arrived from El Paso in December and a recent bus arrived from Texas Governor Greg Abbott about a week ago.
In the letter, Council President Jamie Torres wrote Mayor Hancock and said:
“We realize the arrival of migrants in Denver has placed a significant strain on our city’s resources. However, the council is committed to working with you to ensure that our city remains strong and resilient and dedicated to a humane and caring response. While the City’s emergency response was not planned or budgeted for in 2022 and 2023, we do expect planning for it in 2024 knowing this is not a temporary situation. We did not state it as an explicit priority or policy above, but we do expect it to be a planned expense in 2024 and one that we commit to working on with you and the Department of Finance.”
Denver’s Chief of Staff Alan Salazar wrote a letter in the Denver Gazette and said:
“Denver’s reputation as a welcoming city for immigrants is something to be proud of, but there are critics who say that Denver brought this crisis to our doorsteps because the city has been labeled a so-called “sanctuary city”.
Salazar said Mayor Hancock worked with the challenges that sanctuary city brought with it.
Next week voters will decide between Kelly Brough or Mike Johnston who will take over handling migrants and other priorities that are needed in Denver.
You can see where the candidates stand concerning migrants in this video:
Do you think the new mayor will get a good handle on supporting migrants?
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