Tom Perez, United States Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff came to Denver on Thursday, March 21, and stood alongside Mayor Mike Johnston as they promised major investments in Globeville and support for immigration reform.
Perez joined Johnston to talk to Venezuelan migrants at the Mullen Home, a transitional migrant shelter for families and pregnant women and one of five city migrant shelters that will remain open at the end of March. Johnston is in the process of closing four migrant shelters in Denver and Aurora to save an estimated $20 million this year.
Aware that Denver residents have dealt with cuts to city services and are facing more, Perez told Westword, "I share the frustration." Although he admitted that it's "a federal problem," Perez said that President Joe Biden "has been trying to deliver comprehensive immigration reform since day one" in the White House.
"I wanted to come here to listen and learn from people who have endured truly the unspeakable," Perez added during the press conference. "President Biden understands that our nation's immigrant history has always been and always will be what makes America great, and he's going to continue to work very, very hard. What we need is comprehensive immigration reform."
Perez stopped short of concrete promises like renewing Temporary Protected Status to give more Venezuelan migrants the chance to work, something that Johnston's recently hired newcomer director, Sarah Plastino, hopes the federal government delivers. Nor could Perez promise any federal dollars headed the city's way to deal with the migrant crisis, with nearly 40,000 migrants arriving in Denver since December 2022.
After listening to Venezuelan migrants Ronaldo Delgado and Myra Garcia talk about arriving in the U.S., Perez, whose mom came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic, told them that migrants like him are "the future of Denver" and that "we're fighting for you."
"We're all the future," Delgado told Westword after talking with Perez. "It doesn't matter if you're a migrant or not, and yes, we're a big part of this. The United States is composed of at least big percentage of immigrants; it's a country of immigrants."
Delgado, who came to the U.S. in April, has Temporary Protected Status and is working as a welder making $1,500 a month.
Garcia, a mother of two, said that her only message to Perez was "that they give us the permission and opportunity to work."
Perez suggested that "there are people out there who are using people like those we heard from today as pawns" for the upcoming election, a thinly veiled jab at former president Donald Trump, who is now the Republican candidate to take on Biden in the 2024 election.
"There was a bipartisan bill that would have solved this," Perez said after the press conference. "But it was killed because there were people who were saying, 'Don't give President Biden the victory.' Well, President Biden doesn't care about delivering political victories. He cares about delivering solutions, and I applaud Mayor Johnston for stepping up and doing the best he can."
Talking about the migrant crisis, Johnston noted that the Biden administration has also "helped push forward workforce clinics to get 1,400 newcomers work authorization." The mayor added that he believes we have "a real opportunity for a path out" of the migrant crisis.
"The White House has been an incredible ally," Johnston told Westword after the press conference.
Globeville and Elyria-Swansea Bridge
Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, later joined Perez to tout a $35 million grant to build multi-modal bridges connecting the Globeville and Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods across the South Platte River as well as a pedestrian bridge over railroad tracks in the middle of the National Western Campus. Along with railways, Interstate 70 also cuts through the Globeville and Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods. Emhoff talked about how the highway has devastated the two neighborhoods.
"You can see with your own eyes the devastating impact that redlining and the creation of highways that bisected these communities, the rise in these brownfield sites, polluted lots, have had on this area," Emhoff said during the event. "For decades, far too many communities have been left behind by infrastructure development that was not attuned to the real-life impact of those actions."
Emhoff added that infrastructure projects "disproportionately tear through low-income neighborhoods as well as communities of color." He also talked about food deserts, noting that local blight leads to businesses like grocery stores closing, with the 80216 zip code "ranked as one of, if not the most, polluted in the entire country."
According to Johnston, the grant will give the city a chance to redevelop the area around the National Western Campus and the Stockyards Event Center and improve the lives of the residents in the two neighborhoods.
According to Johnston, the grant will give the city a chance to redevelop the area around the National Western Campus and the Stockyards Event Center and improve the lives of the residents in the two neighborhoods.
"There is a tremendous opportunity for the redevelopment of the Stock Show and Stockyards, to bring new visitors, new tourists, new workers to this neighborhood," Johnston said. "We also want to make sure we fundamentally serve the neighbors who have been in this community, and for centuries."
The grant is part of the Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Pilot Program. Launched by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the pilot program aims to help neighborhoods across the country that have been disadvantaged by transportation projects. It will also pay for road safety improvements and environmental remediation around the Johnson Recreation Center at 4809 Race Street.
