"The city of Denver has spent $356 million in the last few years on illegal immigrants and as a result of that, they've had to cut services including policing, recruiting for law enforcement, those types of things from their own citizens, from the other services," Jeff Hunt, a radio host at Denver’s KNUS-AM, told AFN.
While Denver citizens make due with less, others benefit.
"So, they're making cuts in those particular areas specifically to provide these types of services, housing, legal, even debt cards, to illegal immigrants in the city of Denver,” Hunt said.
Several Sanctuary City mayors, including Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, appeared before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday to answer questions about Sanctuary City policies.
Johnston said his administration uses the term “Welcoming City.”
There was a time when Johnston was willing to meet Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials halfway.
Now he’s changed his tune.
"Initially, he called for a Tiananmen Square moment where he was going to square off with federal immigration officials and he was going to use Denver police to meet these federal immigration officials at the Denver County line. Rightfully so he's backed away from that, but even at one point he said he was willing to go to jail to defend these illegal immigrants," said Hunt.
Johnston’s passion is next-level.
"He believes he's the next Nelson Mandela, so, that's who we have to deal with here, and that's who was called to account Wednesday."
Not so welcoming for ICE
Hunt added that now law enforcement in the Denver area is handcuffed when it comes to working with ICE.
"Denver police and the Denver sheriff are prevented by ordinance, by law in the city of Denver from handing an illegal immigrant over to ICE," said Hunt. "They cannot specifically handcuff them and hand them over to ICE, even if there is a warrant, so, what they have to do is go to the front door and essentially push the illegal immigrant out the front door of the jail with the hopes that there is an ICE agent somewhere near the front door that can grab them and detain them and deport them."
That too is a concern for Hunt and others in Denver that want something done about illegal immigration. For example, Hunt said illegal immigrants may anticipate this and bring in friends or family members to set an ambush for ICE agents.
Republicans accused the mayors of putting their cities in danger and undermining President Donald Trump's deportation plan.
"I think that the Congress did a wonderful job with this hearing. One thing that was consistent is that all of the mayors were saying that they were following their local policy, and one congressman stated that due to the supremacy clause, their local policies can't supersede federal policy," P. Rae Easley, founder and chair of ChicagoRED, told AFN.
Easley says she is pleased Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna has referred the sanctuary city mayors to the Justice Department for criminal investigations.
"She said that she's going to recommend them for prosecution to Pam Bondi, which is a great thing because when we tried to get rid of the Sanctuary City policy here in Chicago, our mayor did a lot of legislative districts to make sure that that question did not make it to a ballot referendum."
