Denver Mayor Proposes Police Deployment, Protests Against Federal Deportations

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said he would send the Denver Police Department (DPD) to the county line to stop federal agents and the military from conducting deportations as President-elect Donald Trump has suggested. In May, a report found that 42,000 illegal immigrants have come to the Denver metro area since December 2022.

Johnston said, “More than us having DPD stationed at the county line to keep them out, you would have 50,000 Denverites there. It’s like the Tiananmen Square moment with the rose and the gun, right? You’d have every one of those Highland moms who came out for the migrants. And you do not want to mess with them.”

The Highland Moms is a group formed to organize assistance and donations for immigrant families. Another group that is closely connected to this mission is Hope Has No Borders, which has been connecting illegal immigrants with temporary housing on a volunteer basis.

Andrea Ryall, Executive Director of Hope Has No Borders and member of the Highland Moms group, said “Mayor Johnston is exactly right. The people of Denver and those specifically in my community, moms and neighbors and newcomers alike, we don’t want to live in a world where the U.S. military is deployed on our cities to knock on doors and take away people of their choosing. That’s not America and that’s not the world we live in.”

There are mixed views from politicians in Washington, D.C., on whether the use of the military to detain immigrants as part of Trump’s deportation agenda is legal or illegal. Senator Rand Paul said, “I’m 100 percent supportive of going after the 15,000 murders, the 13,000 sexual assault perpetrators, rapists—all of these people. Let’s send them on their way to prison or back home to another prison…but you don’t do it with the army because it’s illegal, and we’ve had a distrust of putting the army into our streets.”

In response to the Denver Mayor and other city leaders around the country expressing plans to stop the deportation process, Paul said, “if he’s going to resist that, it will go all the way to the Supreme Court and I would suspect he would be removed from office. I don’t know whether or not there’d be a criminal prosecution for someone resisting federal law. He will lose, and people need to realize what he is offering is a form of insurrection where the states resist the federal government. Most people objected to that and rejected that long ago. So, I think the mayor of Denver is on the wrong side of history. Really, I think [he] will face legal ramifications if he doesn’t obey the federal law.”

Mayor Johnston walked back his original comments and now says he will encourage acts of civil disobedience and protest rather than bringing the DPD to the county line to face-off with ICE agents. “I would if I believed that our residents are having their rights violated,” Johnston said. “I think things are happening that are illegal or immoral or un-American in our city, I would certainly protest it, and I would expect other residents would do the same.”

President-elect Trump has designated Tom Homan as the Border Czar for the incoming administration, a consulting position rather than an official role in the government. The role allows Homan to bypass Senate confirmation hearings to begin advising ICE in the nationwide deportation efforts on Trump’s first day in office on January 20.

Homan has said any governor or mayor that stands in the way of ICE conducting deportations will be in violation of Title 8 United States Code 1324iii. The law “makes it an offense for any person who — knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation.”

Mayor Johnston said he is willing to go to jail to stand up to any actions he deems illegal by the federal government. The Highland Moms and Hope Has No Borders volunteers also risk a felony criminal prosecution if they don’t cooperate with federal law enforcement officers as they conduct deportations of illegal migrants.

Homan said communities will only hurt themselves if they don’t cooperate with ICE in this process. “If I gotta send twice the amount of resources to that city, that’s what we’re going to do,” Homan said. “If they give us access to the jail, that will mean less agents in the community. For them pushing back and not letting us into the jail, it just means more agents are going to be in the community, so they’re hurting themselves.”

The HighWire covered the Take Back Our Borders Convoy in Dripping Springs, TX, earlier this year, shedding light on “dark side of the border crisis“. In March, it reported on the added strain immigrants have brought to Denver Health, a hospital that accepts patients regardless of their ability to pay. Denver citizens passed a ballot measure to increase sales tax, which is expected to provide an additional $70 million in funding to the hospital. They have $140 million in unpaid medical bills from 2023. In 2019, the hospital had $42.1 million in uncompensated medical care expenses. In September, The HighWire covered community concerns about migrant gang activity in Aurora, a suburb of Denver.

Denver residents have noted an increase in homelessness, drug use, and crime over the last several years. An account on X called Do Better Denver has been posting about these issues, hoping that “getting the word out might motivate someone to do something.”

Do Better Denver spoke with The HighWire about the state of crime in the city and a conflict of interest the mayor has with the company that purchased the hotels for housing migrants.

“The general consensus is that people who live in Denver do not feel safe,” Do Better Denver said. “There are a lot of armed robberies of people out in the open happening now around the city (Cherry Creek, La Alma-Lincoln Park, Ballpark). Several of the Cherry Creek ones have been in broad daylight at gunpoint, demanding peoples’ jewelry. Armed carjackings, luxury home break-ins, constant business robberies. Things in Denver are definitely not improving under Mike Johnston’s soft-on-crime approach to public safety.”

Johnston was the President and CEO of Gary Community Ventures (GCV) until he began his campaign for Denver Mayor. GCV financially worked to repeal the group living amendment which allows homeless individuals and migrants to live together in hotels. GCV is also a significant funding source for the Urban Land Conservancy which was involved in the purchase of the DoubleTree hotel for $39 million. The hotel was purchased by the city of Denver for $43 million a year later.

The city currently uses tax dollars to pay millions for hotel rooms, even though many are vacant. At a rate of $129 per night, Denver is paying $47,000 per year for a single room to provide shelter for illegal migrants who have come to the city over the last several years.

New Mexico Governor Michelle Grisham and Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs said they will resist the federal deportation effort. Sanctuary city mayors in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles have also expressed intent to resist the deportation plan, meaning federal agents will not have assistance from local authorities in the apprehension of illegal immigrants. It is unclear if any of these governors or mayors intend to obstruct the work of federal ICE agents in the deportation agenda, but doing so would be a federal felony violation.

Homan and Trump have also stated that they will withhold funding from cities if the local government and police force don’t cooperate.