Denver’s Democrat Mayor Mike Johnston defied his party’s usual obsession with “separation of church and state” and announced he is joining forces with the Denver Archdiocese to help care for hundreds of illegal aliens flooding the Mile High City and putting more than a million dollars of tax money into the deal.
According to the Denver Gazette, the city has seen 32,465 migrants arrive at a cost of $35 million to date. And by this month, some 3,600 illegals are being sheltered by the taxpayers.
To help cope with the influx, Johnston has partnered with the Catholic Church.
“We know that the migrant families arriving in Denver work tirelessly from the moment they arrive to find jobs and housing, and this new partnership will provide the important temporary support they need to be successful here,” the mayor said. “I am deeply grateful to the Archdiocese of Denver for their partnership and look forward to working together to support our new neighbors.”
Venezulean migrants wait in a line to get paper work to be admitted to shelters at a migrant processing center on May 9, 2023 in Denver, Colorado. (Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
A migrant lie on the sleeping pad at a makeshift shelter in Denver, Colorado on Friday, January 13, 2023. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila added that the Church has offered its Mullen Home, originally intended for housing for Denver senior citizens, to the city for its temporary sheltering needs.
“Since its inception, the Mullen Home property was intended to help people in need,” the Archbishop said. “And although plans to restore and reinvigorate the property for senior housing are being developed and scheduled to begin within the next two years, the immediate, desperate, short-term needs of migrants in Denver require us to act now out of love for Jesus Christ.”
The Archdiocese is renting out the facility to help house families for up to 90 days in the Mullen Home’s 30 rooms.
KCDO-TV reported that on Monday the city council unanimously approved the $1.5 million, one-year lease for the church property.
The mayor is also pleading with Washington D.C. to approve work permits for illegals at a faster clip so that they can get into the work force and begin earning their own way as soon as possible.
Denver mayor Mike Johnston, front, discuss about homelessness with citizens during his first town hall meeting at the Central Presbyterian Church in Denver, Colorado on Tuesday, August 29, 2023. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
“Migrants right now are living in encampments in the city because they can’t find access to housing, and we know that has an impact on broader public safety and health,” Johnston said on Tuesday, according to NBC News.
The mayor added, “And so we are pushing very hard to make sure folks get out of those encampments and into work. What each of those people will tell you is that the biggest thing they’re waiting on is a job to be able to get a unit to move their family into.”
Denver already has a 3.3 percent unemployment rate, which is a tick higher than the 3.2 percent in the state over all, according to an Oct. 21 report by the Colorado Sun. Yet, mayor Johnston wants to pour as many immigrants as possible into that same pot of unemployed citizens, a policy that will only make it harder for the city’s middle and lower classes to find new jobs.
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