As Democratic Denver Mayor Mike Johnston says he can be prepared to go to jail over his opposition to the Trump mass-deportation plan, a brand new examine claims the mayor’s Blue metropolis has spent a whopping $356 million of taxpayers’ hard-earned cash on migrants.
The attention-popping sum, which quantities to $7,900 per international nationwide within the metropolis, was revealed by an up to date evaluation final week by the Frequent Sense Institut (CSI), a non-partisan analysis group devoted to defending and selling the US financial system.
The group says it used metropolis information to land on the beautiful sum, which equates to eight% of the town’s 2025 finances of $4.4 billion.
The figures mix the town’s finances in addition to regional training and healthcare organizations.
Denver has seen an unprecedented inflow of migrants arrive within the metropolis underneath the Biden-Harris administration and Johnston has already slashed metropolis companies to deal with and feed these migrants.
Cuts included decreasing companies at recreation facilities and stopping the planting of spring flower beds, whereas the town tapped right into a contingency fund to pay for the spiraling prices.
The CSI claims that the majority of the $356 million spent on migrants was by way of training, with the town additionally forking out on healthcare, accommodations, transportation and childcare.
Denver is a sanctuary metropolis, that means it doesn’t implement immigration regulation, nor does the town cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers.
The group says that about 45,000 migrants have arrived within the Denver metro space since December 2022, with 16,197 migrant college students enrolling in Denver metro faculties.
“The total cost to Denver metro schools related to new migrant students is $228 million annually, which would equate to 1-2% of the total state K-12 education budget for the 2024-25 academic year,” the group writes.
“Earlier CSI reporting estimated the per-student price of instruction and help within the Denver metro to be $14,100 per yr. Assuming this price throughout all latest migrant college students totals $228 million.
In the meantime, Denver docs earlier this yr stated that the migrant disaster had pushed the state’s hospital system to its breaking level and was inflicting a humanitarian disaster.
The CSI examine estimates that emergency departments within the Denver metro space have delivered an estimated $49 million in uncompensated care to migrants.
“With 16,760 [migrant] visits to Denver metro emergency departments from December 2022 to the current, suppliers would have delivered $49,124,029 of uncompensated care to migrants.
The examine reviews that on the top of the migrant inflow in January 2024, officers estimated Denver was going to spend $180 million by way of 2024. Precise expenditures tracked by the town now present it is going to spend about $79 million.
“Of the total, 34.5% has been spent on facilities including hotels, 29.4% on personnel, 14% on services, and 11% on food,” the report finds.
Johnston stated throughout a latest interview that he was ready to protest towards something he believes is “illegal or immoral or un-American” within the metropolis – together with the usage of army power – and was then requested if he was ready to go to jail for standing in the best way of insurance policies enacted by the administration.
“Yeah, I’m not afraid of that, and I’m also not seeking that,” Johnston stated. “I think the goal is we want to be able to negotiate with reasonable people [on] how to solve hard problems.”
Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar” designate, advised Fox Information’ Sean Hannity this week that he would jail Johnston if he broke the regulation in shielding unlawful migrants.
“All he has to do is look at Arizona v. US, and he would see he’s breaking the law. But, look, me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing. He’s willing to go to jail, I’m willing to put him in jail.”
Fox Information’ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
