Denver reports that $29 million in tax dollars has already been dedicated to house, feed, clothe, and care for the flood of illegal border crossers that have entered the Mile High City this year, and an analysis of spending shows the costs will likely soar upwards to $40 million by the end of the year.
Denver has already taken in more than 25,000 border crossers this year, according to the Denver Gazette, and about 2,500 are currently in city shelters.
The Common Sense Institute recently tallied expenses and says the city is on track to spend $36.3 to $39.1 million by the end of the year.
Common Sense analysts noted that 18,519 immigrants spent at least one day in city shelters, and immigrants spent an average of around 18 days in shelters thus far.
“The city’s spending patterns suggest that its migrant support services exhibit high fixed costs and low variable costs,” the group said, noting that arrival rates and shelter capacity are “weak predictors of spending.”
“This suggests that program expenditure is chiefly driven by overhead costs like facility rents and staff salaries,” the group said. “As a result, though it will help relieve shelter occupancy, the city’s decision to shorten the maximum length of shelter stay will only induce a minor cost reduction.”
Denver, of course, is a self-declared “sanctuary city.”
But with the liberals of Denver voting themselves a sanctuary city, it has also made them a target of border states that have begun sending busloads of hundreds of illegals northward.
According to the Gazette, Texas authorities have sent 3,200 immigrants to Denver since May 18.
City authorities have tried to discourage the influx from Texas.
Early this month, Matthew Mueller, the executive director for the Office of Emergency Management for the City and County of Denver, had sent an email to officials in Texas communities of Brownsville, El Paso, Houston, and Dallas pleading with them to stop sending illegals to Denver, and saying they “can no longer provide the same level of sheltering resources to newly arriving persons in Denver.”
Mueller went on to ask Texas officials to distribute flyers to illegals telling “asylum seekers traveling to Denver” that “Denver’s resources have been exhausted.”
“If you are coming to Denver seeking shelter, it is important for you to have a plan,” Mueller’s flyer added. “The city cannot provide shelter long-term.”
Still, only 11 percent of the nearly 25,000 migrants being serviced by Denver arrived on buses from Texas, officials said.
The Common Sense Institute added that the nearly $40 million that will be spent to house and care for illegals this year will be nearly double what the city has spent on homelessness.
The group notes that this can all be pinned on the federal government and the Biden administration’s inability to enact comprehensive immigration reform.
“One of the consequences of that disorder is the financial burden that it thrusts upon local governments like Denver’s, which has incurred costs beyond its normal budgeted expenses as a result,” they said.
The Institute also said that the crisis threatens to swamp the city’s budget and will “eventually risk either crowding out other financial priorities or increasing the ongoing cost of governance.”
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