Roughly 800 migrants are expected to be kicked out of Denver’s shelters as the sanctuary city struggles to keep up with aiding illegal immigrants.
City officials confirmed that 140 families were removed on Monday from the state capital’s temporary housing, with 660 additional migrants expected to be removed within the next few weeks, the outlet reported. (RELATED: Denver Cracks Down After Taking More Migrants Per Capita Than Anywhere Else)
Over the past year, Denver has received nearly 40,000 migrants from Texas’ busing program, putting massive amounts of pressure on the city’s estimated 710,000 residents. Denver Democrat Mayor Mike Johnston expressed previous concerns late last year, asking the Biden administration for more assistance during a media briefing.
“If there’s no federal support, there’s no coordinated entry, there’s no work authorization, then I think cities will have to look at dramatically reducing the amount of services we offer or dramatically cutting our city budgets,” Johnson stated.
Mid-January a major Denver hospital began warning about low funding due to unexpected costs with an increase in visits, according to The Denver Post. Due to the increasing issues, the hospital reportedly asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for additional funding that would help migrants with medical costs that the federal and state authorities didn’t cover. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Illegal Immigrant Deported Four Times Charged With Killing Colorado Mother, Son In DUI Crash)
As migrants have continued to descend into the city, 3,813 people were reportedly sheltered last week, according to Fox News. During a town hall meeting last week, Johnston stated that “every single hotel room” available within the city had been “filled,” emphasizing that if they did not start removing people, newcomers would have nowhere to go.
“We have filled every single hotel room that we have available in the city and county of Denver,” Johnston stated according to the outlet.
“Now we have the terrible decision that if we don’t start exiting folks, we will have 250 folks that will arrive today or the day after who don’t have anywhere to go at night.”
The migrants who have been removed and continue to be removed will be based upon a set of standards, per the city’s site. According to officials those who did not qualify but were admitted since discharges were paused in November, those who “were previously timed out of the shelter program but were readmitted,” and families with children who entered last fall or later will all be discharged.
The city additionally will be providing a 5-day increase for families sheltering from their original 37-day policy, giving “newly arriving families with children with up to six weeks (42 days) in shelter.”