Denver mayor discusses challenge posed by an influx of migrants

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• Amna Nawaz:

  As federal state and local leaders seek solutions along the Southern border, the effects of the migrant crisis are being felt well within the nation's interior.

  John Yang has more on how the situation is creating new divides between cities and states hundreds of miles apart.

• John Yang:

  More than 4,000 migrants who crossed into the United States from Mexico arrived in Denver over the past month. With shelters and services overwhelmed, Colorado began chartering buses have its own.

  Democratic Governor Jared Polis insists the trips matched migrants' plans to reconnect with family, unlike the scene last September, when Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida took credit for sending migrants to Martha's Vineyard, much to the surprise of both the passengers and locals.

• Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL):

  The minute even a small fraction of what those border towns deal with every day is brought to their front door, they all of a sudden go berserk.

• John Yang:

  But mayors of two of the country's biggest cities, destinations for Colorado's buses, accused the state of exporting its crisis as they struggle with their own.

  Eric Adams (D), Mayor of New York: This is unacceptable. And I'm not going to sit back and allow New Yorkers to carry the burden of a manmade crisis. This must be fixed. This has to be fixed.

• John Yang:

  Last week, Mayors Eric Adams of New York and Lori Lightfoot of Chicago sent a letter asking Colorado to cease and desist, saying neither city had room to accommodate any more migrants.

  Colorado has since halted its busing operation, but advocates say they remain overwhelmed and under-resourced.

  Colorado was allotted $5 million to respond to the migrant crisis, half of that money for Denver. The city has already spent about $1.5 million.

  Michael Hancock is in his third term as mayor of Denver and, because of term limits, it's his last.

  Mr. Mayor, what's the current situation? How many people are currently in shelters right now? And are new migrants still arriving in Denver?

  Michael Hancock (D), Mayor of Denver, Colorado: First of all, John, it's good to be with you.

  And we are still seeing about 50 migrants arrive in Denver on a daily basis. Right now, we are housing over 1,200 migrants between city shelters, emergency shelters, and the shelters of our partners, who are — who — nonprofits and faith organizations that have stepped up to help us through this crisis.

• John Yang:

  And we should clarify, these — the migrants are coming on their own initiative. They're not being sent up there by a Republican governor or someone — by an official.

• Mayor Michael Hancock:

  From what we understand, in talking with the migrants themselves and trying to understand how they got here and why they're here, it was loosely coordinated amongst themselves to come into Colorado.

  And most of them, not all of them, but most of them, were hoping to go on to other destinations outside of Denver and outside of Colorado.

• John Yang:

  Why — you set a 14-day limit on how long the migrants can stay in shelters, and you're moving to close some of them. Why that decision?

• Mayor Michael Hancock:

  Well, there are a couple of reasons.

  One, as we continue to talk with cities, particularly along the border, and other cities that have been deluged with migrants, we look at best practices. What are the best things for us to do to help the migrants, as well as to effectively serve them, as well as to relieve the financial stress and burden on the people of Denver and the use of our recreation centers?

  And this is not their intended purpose, in terms of the rec centers themselves. And what we have learned is, once the city leans into shelter, it becomes a long-term challenge that is hard to break up.

  So what we're working to do not so much is put people out on the street after 14 days, but to really send a clarion call to all of our external partners, nonprofit, faith organizations, as well as other levels of government, state and federal government, that we have to work diligently to assess, authorize and to properly shelter individuals throughout, dispersed throughout Denver and the state of Colorado, wherever they want to go.

  But we have to return our rec centers to their intended purpose sooner than later. And there's nothing humane about trying to house migrants on the floors of our gymnasiums and rec centers, where they really don't have the proper facilities. And so it's really more of an approach to compassion, a humane approach to helping folks be more comfortable, but also be able to access the services they need.

• John Yang:

  Are you confident that there will be places for the migrants to go at the end of those 14 days?

• Mayor Michael Hancock:

  I'm not at all confused that this is going to be a challenging effort.

  We know it's going to be challenging, because not only do we have to find alternative shelter opportunities, but we have to case-manage and assess really the status of these individuals who have come to our cities. And that's why it has to be a multilevel of government response to this and not just cities of Denver, Tucson, Chicago, New York, or what have you responding.

• John Yang:

  Mr. Mayor, you mentioned this multilevel governmental approach to this. Should the federal government be helping you with this situation?

• Mayor Michael Hancock:

  Absolutely.

  What we're dealing with today, John, is really a failure of Congress and past administrations and — to really respond. I got to tell you that the most recent policy released by Biden has been helpful to us, to an extent, but we need a long-term strategy.

  And I have been calling for this for 12 years that I have been mayor of Denver, because we recognize that a lot of the challenges that cities like Denver and other cities in the U.S. are dealing with, the frustrations with immigration are due to the lack of policy and direction from the federal government.

  So, the federal government, Congress in particular, needs to do his job, design and bring forward sensible legislation with a sensible pathway to citizenship for migrants who are wanting to come to the U.S.

• John Yang:

  Your city is hundreds of miles from the border. Did you ever imagine that you would be facing a migrant crisis like this in your own city?

• Mayor Michael Hancock:

  No.

  We knew that there were political games being played. Denver was named as probably one of the progressive cities that they may start shipping migrants to. We didn't really expect them to come to Denver. There's really nothing natural about a migration to Denver for migrants out of Venezuela or El Salvador or wherever they're coming from.

  We don't really have a Venezuelan population in Denver. And so, yes, we're a little surprised that we have such a large surge that has come to our city.

• John Yang:

  Whose responsibility do you think this is? Who — why is this happening in Denver?

• Mayor Michael Hancock:

  You know what?

  I think the reality is, is that we have, again, failed to develop a sensible immigration strategy for this nation and to help our border cities — states and cities to deal effectively with the right resources, with the right safety net systems to help those who want to come to the U.S.

  And so other cities like Tucson and Denver who — and Chicago, who may not be necessarily on that border, are being surged with migrants who are looking for opportunity in the U.S. as they have come across, unauthorized for the most part, into the United States.

• John Yang:

  Michael Hancock, mayor of Denver, thank you very much.

• Mayor Michael Hancock:

  John, thanks for having me.