That’s what the Democrat mayor of Denver, Colorado, said yesterday in an interview with Fox News. Speaking with Fox News’s Lawrence Jones, Mayor Mike Johnston said the city had “successfully welcomed” the nearly 40,000 illegal migrants it received during the past year. Nevertheless, that “success” seems to have been short-lived, as Johnston says the city now needs $180 million to pay for all its migrant services. Without the extra cash, which he wants from the federal govenrment, Denver will meet the “breaking point.”
In addition to driving up the bill for services, the migrant influx has affected the city in numerous ways:
- Illegal migrants have run up $10 million in unpaid medical bills at Denver Health, the city’s “safety net” hospital.
- The city school system has added 3,000 immigrant children, mainly from Venezuela, since July, 2023. Many of those children have had no previous schooling at all and thus require specialized — and more expensive — classes.
- The shortage of shelter space has forced the city to boot migrant families after six weeks (individuals must leave after 14 days). As a result, homelessness has surged to unprecdented levels. Currently, there about 9,065 homeless people in the Metro area, an increase of 58 percent from 2016, when the number was about 5,728.
- Meanwhile, migrants have taken to employing illegal tactics such as swarming cars stopped in intersections, demanding from frightened motorists payment for unsolicted “work” such as windshield cleaning. In this and many other ways, the quality of life in the Mile High City is deteriorating, thanks to an old man in the White House.
For more, see Axios.