On Monday’s broadcast of ABC’s “GMA3,” Denver Mayor Michael Hancock stated that the city has received a record influx of migrants into the city since December that is financially “unsustainable” without more help from the federal government, and stated that the migrants that have been recently sent to the city by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) “probably would have ended up in Denver” anyway.
Hancock said, “We’re going to continue doing what we’ve always done, take care of the migrants when they get here, help them get where they want to go, and continue to try to be as humane and compassionate as possible. It doesn’t change anything. The interesting point about those migrants that came on Abbott’s bus, they probably would have ended up in Denver in the first place. So we’re going to continue doing what we’ve been doing.”
He added, “Well, we have not had this influx in the time frame that we’ve had them now, so 10,000 since December, that’s a lot. And it’s stressed our resources, really challenged us to kind of collaborate, bring in external partners to try to accommodate the challenge that we’re trying to meet. So, this is huge. Make no mistake about it, we’ve not seen this level of influx of migrants into Denver at any given time and I’ve been Mayor for twelve years. So, we haven’t seen it, and we’ve had — we’ve been forced to really come together and try to figure this out. We’ve done a pretty good job, but it does stress our resources and we’re having to make some very tough decisions.”
Hancock further stated, “We have spent over $17 million since December. We’ve only received about a little over $900,000 [in] reimbursement from FEMA. That simply is not going to work. It’s unsustainable.”
Last Thursday, Hancock accused Abbott of “exacerbating” the situation on the border and engaging in “political theater” by busing migrants to Denver.
What’s happening at the border and now at the doorsteps of cities across the country is a humanitarian crisis. What none of us need is more political theater pitting jurisdictions against each other and exacerbating this situation instead of advocating for real solutions. https://t.co/Xv55zmyXX8
— Michael B. Hancock (@MayorHancock) May 18, 2023
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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