Colorado Democrats Lay Off Americans and Mull Giving Illegals Government Jobs, Violating Federal Law

Venezulean migrants wait in a line to get paper work to be admitted to shelters at a migra
Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty
Warner Todd Huston

Last week, news broke that the city of Denver was preparing to lay off citizens who work for the city due to financial pressures because of Joe Biden’s illegal alien crisis. Now some state Democrats are urging officials to violate federal law and hire illegals for government jobs even as Americans are dismissed.

After the news that Denver was laying off employees went viral, the city bristled at the term “layoffs” and hastily told reporters that it was not actually eliminating people. Instead, some employees were to have their hours reduced to zero, according to KUSA-TV.

“The reduction in hours of operation and programs will affect the number of hours worked by many on-call, some to the point where they may not receive any hours,” Denver Parks and Recreation Director Jolon Clark said in a statement. “The final decisions on hours for any individual position have not been made yet.”

KUSA-TV reported that “everyone from front desk workers to coaches to lifeguards are all considered ‘on-call employees’ that could be impacted by these cuts,” according to Denver Parks and Rec.

Mayor Mike Johnston also noted that final decisions have not been made.

“We have not made any final decisions on cuts other than the ones that we announced already,” Johnston told the media. “All of our departments, all of our agencies, we’re going to have to find a way to prioritize.”

However, a spokesperson for Johnston’s office had more to say on the hiring issue. The spokesperson told the Daily Wire that some officials were considering hiring illegals for city jobs because paying illegals to do city work was “not necessarily” any more costly than paying them through welfare programs. But some officials also felt the plan might violate federal employment laws.

Despite growing concern over handing illegal aliens government jobs even without legal work permits, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) urged Centennial State officials to ignore federal law and give illegals government jobs anyway. The senator even blasted the feds for threatening to sue cities for ignoring the law and hiring lllegals.

“I think at a certain point, if the federal government doesn’t act, local communities are going to have to. They’re going to have to figure out some way to say, you can work,” Hickenlooper said according to another KUSA report. “You’re going to have a six-month working permit and if the federal government wants to come down and throw the book at us, we’ll deal with the legal costs. Because people aren’t being left with any other choices.”

Sen. Hickenlooper added that cities are going to end up cutting their budgets and that will likely mean employees will either be laid off or will lose benefits and hours.

“What’s going to happen now is that citizens in metro Denver are going to see their budgets cut. Maybe their rec centers close an hour early. That’s unacceptable,” the senator said. “The federal government cannot expect that this is largely a federal problem, and expect the local communities to bear the full brunt. The federal government has to step up and help. There’s no question.”

Meanwhile, many citizens of the Denver area are struggling financially even as officials continue to provide migrants with free food, free lodging, free education, health care, clothing, and other services.

One resident of Lakewood, a city bordering Denver, told the city council that as government officials spend $480 million a year to house illegals, many local residents are living on fixed incomes and are suffering.

But even Mayor Johnston seemed to fear that handing out work permits might incentivize more illegals to come here. Still, in a January visit with Fox News Channel’s America’s Newsroom, Johnston demurred from commenting on the claim, saying that the topic is “above his pay grade.”

But the fact that he would not unequivocally state that work permits don’t act as a draw to more illegals was telling.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston

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