"He might be a little too skinny to be intimidating when he's got his fists clenched," Hickenlooper says. "But he's doing the heavy lifting. Every mayor around you is dealing with the same situation — it doesn't matter what community you're in — but Denver has had the bulk."
Hickenlooper shared his thoughts on the job that Denver's mayor is doing handling the migrant crisis after a roundtable discussion with metro-area community members who have been helping migrants find clothes, work and food, including Andrea Ryall with Highland Mommies, Mateos Alvarez with the Dayton Day Labor Center in Aurora and Maria Determan with SAME Cafe.
More than 38,000 migrants have arrived in the City of Denver since December 2022. Johnston predicts that the city will need to spend upwards of $180 million this year to continue handling the flood.
Despite Johnston lobbying for support in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Senate killed a bipartisan border security deal that would have allocated $1.4 billion to local migrant support programs. As a result, Johnston announced $5 million in budget cuts on February 9, starting with reductions at the Denver Motor Vehicles Division and the Department of Parks & Recreation.
"The citizens throughout metro Denver are going to see their budgets cut, their rec center is going to be closed down earlier. That's unacceptable," Hickenlooper says. "This is largely a federal problem, and they can't expect the local communities to go to the forefront. The federal government has to step up now."
Hickenlooper had met with Johnston before the roundtable, and came away from the meeting confident that Johnston would find the "$180 million to get the budget back in shape and deal with the thousand and thousands of individuals who are here," Hickenlooper told reporters. He also said that he's hopeful that the feds will come up with some kind of authorization that will allow migrants to work, though no bill has yet been introduced.
Hickenlooper had put out his own call for immigration reform on February 8 after the border security bill died. "We need a stable, legal and fair workforce, or else our economy will collapse without immigrant labor,” he said in a statement that day. "We’re just kicking the can down the road. If we only seek to restrict legal pathways into this country, then the few that remain available will always be overwhelmed. We need an immigration system that isn’t so dysfunctional that families have to risk their lives with cartels and desert crossings to seek a better life."
Even though Denver residents won't be happy with the budget cuts to help cover the cost of dealing with migrants, Hickenlooper says that "Johnston is a good mayor" who is doing what needs to be done for the city. "He is completely focused on the city, and that's where his primary focus has been and has to be," Hickenlooper adds.
Hickenlooper was the mayor of Denver from 2003 to 2011; he left office to run for governor of Colorado. Term-limited in that office, he made a brief run for the presidency, then dropped out and ran for the U.S. Senate. Johnston, who'd announced that he was running for the same U.S. Senate seat in 2019, dropped out of the race shortly after Hickenlooper got in. He announced that he was running for mayor in late 2022.
Part of Johnston's fight for Denver will mean "coming out to Washington every six weeks and swinging his fists," Hickenlooper says. And even if he fails, "you go back and you work at it again."
"He's got a plan for the reality he's in right now," he says. "He's serious. He's doing exactly what he has to do. He has to make those cuts, make sure that the budget doesn't get turned upside down because of this once-in-a-century massive crisis, but at the same time, he has to be fighting for the future."
Hickenlooper was the mayor of Denver from 2003 to 2011; he left office to run for governor of Colorado. Term-limited in that office, he made a brief run for the presidency, then dropped out and ran for the U.S. Senate. Johnston, who'd announced that he was running for the same U.S. Senate seat in 2019, dropped out of the race shortly after Hickenlooper got in. He announced that he was running for mayor in late 2022.
Part of Johnston's fight for Denver will mean "coming out to Washington every six weeks and swinging his fists," Hickenlooper says. And even if he fails, "you go back and you work at it again."
Johnston has visited D.C. twice during the past four months to plead for federal support. His first trip, along with other mayors, was November 1-2, when he met with congressional delegations, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other key federal leaders. He returned January 15-18 for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a non-partisan network of cities with more than 30,000 residents. It was "time well spent for the benefit of Denver," Hickenlooper says. "I know from when I was mayor that getting mayors to work together is a very powerful tool, and it can have a big role in dealing with this crisis.
"He's already respected at the U.S. Conference of Mayors," Hickenlooper adds. "He's already held up as someone who's taking a very difficult situation and organizing other mayors to say collectively that we can take action to make a difference."
"He's already respected at the U.S. Conference of Mayors," Hickenlooper adds. "He's already held up as someone who's taking a very difficult situation and organizing other mayors to say collectively that we can take action to make a difference."
More migrants have come through Denver in the last year than anywhere else in the U.S. except for New York City, Hickenlooper says. "And on a per capita basis, they've had three times the number New York has."
Despite the overwhelming number of migrants coming into the city, Denver "hasn't been crying into their handkerchiefs," Hickenlooper concludes. "They're bringing the community together, gathering resources up, figuring out solutions to the housing issue, finding food and trying to figure out some way they can get jobs."
Despite the overwhelming number of migrants coming into the city, Denver "hasn't been crying into their handkerchiefs," Hickenlooper concludes. "They're bringing the community together, gathering resources up, figuring out solutions to the housing issue, finding food and trying to figure out some way they can get jobs."
While Denver is dealing with the current crisis, Hickenlooper notes that migration will be a "major cause for the next fifty years. There's more migration going on right now than ever in the history of the world. Economic inequality, climate change, political disruption — that's happening all over the world. People are going to migrate."
