While Democratic Denver Mayor Mike Johnston says he would be willing to go to jail for his opposition to Trump’s mass deportation plan, a new study claims the mayor’s blue city has spent a whopping $356 million taxpayers’ hard-earned money on immigrants.
The staggering sum, amounting to $7,900 per foreign citizen in the city, was revealed by an analysis updated last week by the Common Sense Institute (CSI), a nonpartisan research organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the American economy.
The group says it used city data to come up with the staggering sum, which is equal to 8% of the city’s $4.4 billion 2025 budget. The figures combine the city budget as well as regional education and health organizations.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, right, and a migrant in the city, left. A new study claims Denver has spent a whopping $356 million of taxpayers’ hard-earned money on migrants since the crisis began in 2022, with costs including education, health care and housing. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
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Denver has seen an unprecedented influx of migrants coming to the city under the Biden-Harris administration, and Johnston has already cut city services to house and feed those migrants. Cuts included reducing services at recreation centers and halting the planting of spring flower beds, while the city tapped a contingency fund to pay for rising costs.
The CSI claims that most of the $356 million spent on immigrants went to education, and that the city also wasted money on health care, hotels, transportation and child care. Denver is a sanctuary city, which means it does not apply immigration law, The city is also not cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
The group says about 45,000 immigrants have arrived in the Denver metro area since December 2022, with 16,197 immigrant students enrolled in metro Denver schools.
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“The total cost to Denver metropolitan schools related to new immigrant students is $228 million annually, which would equal 1-2% of the total state budget for K-12 education for the 2024-25 academic year,” he writes the group.
“Previous CSI reports estimated the per-student cost of instruction and support in the Denver metropolitan area to be $14,100 per year. Assuming this cost among all recent immigrant students amounts to $228 million.
Meanwhile, Denver doctors said earlier this year that the migrant crisis had pushed the state’s hospital system to its limits and was causing a humanitarian crisis.
Migrants at a makeshift shelter in Denver, Colorado, on January 13, 2023. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
The CSI study estimates that emergency departments in the Denver metropolitan area have provided approximately $49 million in uncompensated care to immigrants.
“With 16,760 [migrant] visits to emergency departments in the Denver metropolitan area from December 2022 to the present, providers would have provided $49,124,029 in uncompensated care to migrants.
The study reports that at the height of the migrant influx in January 2024, officials estimated Denver was going to spend $180 million through 2024. Actual spending tracked by the city now shows it will spend about $79 million.
“Of the total, 34.5% has been spent on facilities, including hotels, 29.4% on staff, 14% on services and 11% on food,” the report states.
Johnston said during a recent interview that he was willing to protest anything he considers “illegal, immoral or un-American” in the city – including the use of military force – and was later asked if he was willing to go to jail for impeding the policies enacted by the administration.
Tom Homan, Trump’s appointed “border czar,” told Fox News’ Sean Hannity this week that he would jail Johnston if he broke the law by protecting illegal immigrants. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
“Yeah, I’m not afraid of it and I’m not looking for it either,” Johnston said. “I think the goal is that we want to be able to negotiate with reasonable people. [on] how to solve difficult problems.”
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Tom Homan, Trump’s appointed “border czar,” told Fox News’ Sean Hannity this week that he would jail Johnston if he broke the law by protecting illegal immigrants.
“All you have to do is look at Arizona v. United States and you would see that he is breaking the law. But look, the mayor of Denver and I agree on one thing. He is willing to go to jail, I “I’m willing to go to jail.” put him in jail.”
Fox News’ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
