8 AUGUST 21-27, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | If you, a loved one, or your patient is struggling with a substance use disorder, help is just a call away. Take the first step toward recovery. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Call: 303-962-8027 SCAN TO LEARN MORE Denver Health’s Substance Treatment Line is here for you. • Free compassionate support • Confidential • No Pressure • Inclusive Care ing humanitarian parole, a designation that allows immigrants to enter temporarily for urgent reasons, and were then bused to Den- ver. Before Trump was re-elected, the Denver mayor’s offi ce estimated that around half of the migrants had stayed in the city. Many Congressional Republicans blamed Colorado and Denver immigration laws for why so many migrants had come to the city in such a short amount of time, while Democrats in Congress pointed to Republican refusal to pass a border protection bill in 2024. Denver continued to decline ICE de- tainers, but the state has taken a different direction of late. Despite tougher talk before Trump was re-elected in 2024, Governor Jared Polis came under fi re in January for saying the state would cooperate with ICE to deport dangerous criminals. In June, state employees revealed that Polis had ordered them to comply with requests by ICE to give up people’s personal information, but a lawsuit has halted those orders for now. The Colorado Legislature passed more laws this year that reduce local and state cooperation with ICE. In May, Colorado lawmakers approved a bill that limits where ICE agents can conduct arrests without a warrant signed by a judge; it also prohibits government employees from sharing infor- mation about a person’s immigration status with federal law enforcement. Mayors Johnston and Hancock have pre- ferred calling Denver a “welcoming city” instead of a sanctuary city. Other govern- ments have reacted differently: The City of Lakewood and Arapahoe and Adams counties don’t call themselves sanctuary jurisdictions, but have announced that they won’t enforce immigration law. The City of Aurora declared itself a “non-sanctuary city” in 2017 and again in 2024, while communities like Douglas County and Castle Rock have supported legis- lation calling on more cooperation with ICE . How Does Being a Sanctuary City Impact Denver? According to City of Denver spokesper- son Jon Ewing, the impact of being labeled a sanctuary city is “complicated.” “More broadly, we’ve seen some contracts sent to us with new terminology around im- migration and DEI,” Ewing says of the federal government since Trump was re-elected. The “sanctuary city” designation has had real impacts on Denver, especially its immi- grant population. In September 2017, ICE launched Operation Safe City, an immigration roundup initiative in Denver and other cities that the feds considered “sanctuary” jurisdic- tions, which resulted in nearly 500 arrests. In March, Republican Congressman Jeff Crank from Colorado Springs tried something similar with a bill to cut federal funding for cit- ies that don’t give ICE two days’ notice before releasing undocumented immigrants from police custody. It was Crank’s fi rst bill, and he used Denver as an example of a sanctuary city that “doesn’t deserve” federal funding. George Brauchler, the district attorney for Douglas County, blames Denver’s sanctuary city status for crime in his jurisdiction and says he plans to undo Colorado’s sanctuary laws through state legislation and ballot initiatives. When Republicans hauled Mike John- ston to a Congressional oversight hearing in Washington, D.C., in March because of his promise to stand up to ICE, Representative Lauren Boebert called Denver a sanctu- ary city because of its 2017 law, which she blamed for a rising crime rate. Johnston was there with Democratic mayors from Boston, New York and Chicago, which are also on the newest sanctuary city list. “It’s shameful, but not surprising, that Denver Mayor Mike Johnston defended his city’s sanctuary city ordinance,” Boebert said in a statement after the testimony. “Our state cannot afford to continue supporting sanctu- ary city policies; changes must be made and if they won’t happen at the state and local level, I will work directly with the Trump administra- tion to elicit changes from the federal level.” The Trump administration is following through on threats to cut Denver’s federal funding this year. In April, the Denver Depart- ment of Finance announced that the adminis- tration had zero plans to pay $24 million that the city had been promised as reimbursement for the migrant crisis in 2022 and 2023. Under the Biden administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency promised to reimburse some of the money Denver spent to house and transport thousands of Venezuelan migrants. Denver expected at least $30 million in reimbursements, only for Trump to cut that short because of the city’s “support for illegal aliens,” according to a letter from FEMA. In April, the Trump administration threatened to withhold upwards of $300 million in transportation funding because of Denver’s immigration policies, but it has yet to follow through. In May, the White House froze millions in grant funding that Denver had received annually to prevent nuclear and terrorist attacks. The DOJ also fi led a lawsuit in May against Colorado and Denver for its sanctuary laws limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Denver has already fi led four lawsuits to punch back. It joined two lawsuits with other jurisdictions in May, one to get its FEMA reimbursements and another to secure its previously approved transportation fund- ing. In June, the city fi led a lawsuit against the federal government to get its terrorism prevention funding back; it fi led another in July, for the Trump administration’s refusal to deliver multiple rounds of federal funding because Denver is considered a sanctuary city. A federal judge has already ordered a preliminary injunction to free up the fed- eral transportation funding, and the city eventually received its promised terrorism prevention funding after fi ling its lawsuit. All four cases are still in court, however, and could be overturned, according to Ewing. The DOJ lawsuit fi led in May demands the U.S. District Court in Colorado declare Denver and Colorado’s sanctuary laws in- valid; that, too, is still in play. Despite Polis’s recent willingness to work with ICE, the State of Colorado has also been hit by federal cuts. According to a state dashboard detailingfunding losses this year, Colorado has already lost $750 million in federal funding under the current Trump administration, mostly annual federal funding that was terminated or not renewed this year. Email the author at [email protected]. News continued from page 6
