The Denver, Colorado, city and county government has begun asking border officials in Texas to distribute flyers, informing border crossers that Colorado’s capital city has few long-term shelter options remaining and advising those border crossers to make different plans rather than travel to Denver.
Denver’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) shared a copy of the flyer with NTD News on Tuesday.
The flyer titled “Updates for Migrants and Asylum Seekers Traveling to Denver” relays four bullet-point messages:
- “Denver’s resources have been exhausted”
- “Asylum seekers without children in city shelters have been given a 14-day stay limit
in shelter” - “If you are coming to Denver seeking shelter, it is important for you to have a plan. The city cannot provide shelter long-term”
- “Housing in Denver is very expensive and there aren’t many affordable housing options available”
Denver is one of several U.S. cities that have become popular destinations for asylum applicants, illegal immigrants awaiting removal proceedings, and otherwise inadmissible illegal immigrants who have been allowed into the United States through parole programs.
Since last April, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s administration has been actively sending busloads of border crossers to various so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions, a term for localities that either limit or outright refuse to assist federal immigration enforcement efforts.
Some organizations regard the city of Denver and the state of Colorado as a whole as a “sanctuary” jurisdiction. Earlier this year, the office of Democrat Colorado Gov. Jared Polis rejected the “sanctuary state” label, but Mr. Polis signed legislation in 2019 that bars law enforcement officers in the state from arresting or detaining individuals on behalf of federal immigration detainer requests and prohibits probation officials from relaying a person’s information to federal immigration authorities.
Beginning in May of this year, Mr. Abbott’s administration began busing illegal immigrants in Texas to Denver. He announced new rounds of buses headed for Denver last month, and estimated his administration had sent around 1,500 border crossers to Denver since May.
In an Oct. 2 press release, the Denver city and county government said the influx of illegal immigrants “is affecting shelter capacity and straining staffing availability.” The Denver government announced adults without children would see their maximum length of stay in the city’s shelter system cut from 21 days to 14 days, while families with children would see their maximum length of stay extended from 30 to 37 days.
As of Tuesday, a dashboard operated by Denver’s shelter and support system indicated the city is “serving” some 23,535 non-citizens. The dashboard indicated that 2,973 non-citizens were being sheltered in non-city facilities, while no non-citizens were being sheltered in facilities directly operated by the city of Denver.
A spokesperson for the Denver OEM told NTD News that the flyers they are now sending to Texas are meant to reflect Denver’s revised shelter policies.
“We believe these flyers convey the same message we are relaying to migrants when they arrive in Denver, which is that our shelter capacity is strained and our primary role is to provide temporary, emergency shelter,” the OEM spokesperson said.
The spokesperson did not specify exactly which Texas jurisdictions had received these flyers and what assurances Denver had that Texas border officials would pass on the message to help discourage border crossers from traveling north to the Colorado state capital.
“City leadership sent these flyers to our counterparts at the border to distribute to migrants who are seeking shelter and asylum in Denver,” the spokesperson said. “We don’t have any assurances which indicate they are following through with our request.”
Denver is not the only locale to raise alarm about the rising number of arrivals from the U.S. southern border.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has sought to suspend his city’s “right to shelter” policies as border crossers continue to arrive in his city and request shelter and care.
In May, then-Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot called on Mr. Abbott to stop sending buses of illegal immigrants to Chicago—a self-described sanctuary city.