Luis Torres, Ph.D. and Chris M. Frésquez
Posted March 7, 2024
The recent surge in new arrival immigrants into Denver has led to a variety of activities and proceedings in the City and County of Denver, with varied and oftentimes conflicting reactions and declarations by the citizens of Denver and by those in nearby cities.
The Weekly Issue/El Semanario, published an editorial by Milo, Marquez, Chair of the Latino Education Coalition of Denver in our
February 22, 2024 edition, about the very positive efforts by Denver Public Schools in addressing the recent arrival children of the immigrants.
In this edition, we address the larger efforts by officials from Denver to address the needs of the newly arrived immigrants, along with commentary about some of the factors leading to such immigration.
The Weekly Issue/El Semanario, considers the efforts by elected officials from Denver and their staff and appointees to be admirable and commendable in representing the city’s citizens on behalf of the recent immigrants, especially their children. The task facing our elected officials has been daunting both in the suddenness of the new immigrant arrivals and in their unexpected numbers. By some estimates, “Nearly 40,000 migrants have arrived in Denver over the past year, making a city with a population of just over 710,000 the top destination per capita for newly arrived migrants crossing the U.S. southern border and traveling north in buses from Texas,” with “the past year” extending from January 2023—January 2024. The report adds, about Denver’s treatment of and support for the immigrants, “
Citizens and residents of Denver can be proud of the honorable and benevolent assistance Mayor Johnston, the City and County administration, and our local citizens have all shown our new neighbors. Ultimately, we will be the better for it.
In many ways, Denver has welcomed migrants in a way not seen in other cities. They have not had major protests like New York and Chicago. Instead, residents have joined with nonprofits to donate food and clothing and even organized carpools to get new migrant students to school,” reported NBC News.
Earlier this year, The Washington Post reported, “For months, the unscheduled arrival of migrants, mostly by bus, has strained local resources and vexed officials in places such as Chicago, Denver and New York. The large cities, led by Democrats, are the chosen targets of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who is sending asylum seekers by the thousands to other states to protest the Biden administration’s border and immigration policies.
The “unscheduled” nature of the bus arrivals has made the situation even more dire, especially since these have occurred during the depth of winter in these northern cities, including Denver, with the unsuspecting arrivals unaccustomed to such frigid temperatures. Venezuela’s southern border, for example, lies just above the equator, denoting its temperate climate.
Following the above background, The Weekly Issue/El Semanario, wishes to commend Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and his staff, and the citizens of Denver, for their humanitarian responses to the recent immigrants. The City and County of Denver, and Mayor Johnston, have truly gone above and beyond in assisting these new arrivals and have taken special care to protect and provide for these children.
The Colorado Sun, Feb. 16, 2024, reported, “Denver has helped 40,000 migrants while Colorado Springs counts 24 families. Does being a sanctuary city matter that much?” contrasts the positive actions of Denver with the nearly-virulent response by Colorado Springs. As is stated about Denver, “More than 38,500 migrants, most of them fleeing political turmoil and poverty in Venezuela, have come through Denver in the past year. The city has spent $42 million so far, much of it on renting rooms in seven hotels so that the newcomers — some who legally sought asylum and some who crossed the border illegally — have a warm place to sleep.”
In contrast, “The Salvation Army in Colorado Springs, meanwhile, has helped just 24 families — the news of which this month prompted elected officials to tell nonprofits not to help migrants and reiterate that Colorado Springs is not a ‘sanctuary city.’” (There is no legally recognized definition of “sanctuary city.”) Notably, the mayor of Colorado Springs is an immigrant himself, from Nigeria. “Blessing ‘Yemi’ Mobolade was sworn in as the 42nd Mayor of Colorado Springs on June 6, 2023. This is his first four-year term as mayor. He is the first Black man and immigrant to be elected mayor of Colorado Springs and one of the youngest…. At age 17, he immigrated to the United States, following in the footsteps of his brother to pursue the American Dream through education.” However, Mayor Mobolade has been neutral in this debate.
Denver’s suburban neighbor, Aurora, is another lesson in Denver’s pro-humanitarian stance vs. Aurora’s contrasting rejection.
The Denver Post, in “Aurora demands a stop to busing of migrants,” of February 28, 2024, cited an Aurora City Council declaration, which passed on a 7-3 vote in favor:
The City Council affirms remaining a Non-Sanctuary City and asserts the City does not currently have the financial capacity to fund new services related to this crisis and demands that other municipalities and entities do not systematically transport migrants or people experiencing homelessness to the City.
However, it is clear that Aurora residents drive to Denver in droves every weekday morning to partake of the plethora of jobs available in Denver to fund the lifestyles in Aurora, with no attendant resolution to keep Aurorans out of our city of Denver.
An explanation for the reasons or causes that led to the recently arrived immigrants leaving their home countries to immigrate to the U.S. is beyond the scope of this article. However, these causes, or “push factors,” can be briefly addressed. We often hear individual causes, such as for a better life, for work to support their family, to escape violence from gangs, or to flee from political persecution. Many of these reasons overlap, since one, such as political persecution, can lead to poverty, causing the need for emigrating to obtain employment, to provide for one’s family.
An example of a unique story of immigration is from India, not often in U.S. immigration news. An NBC News story, “What’s behind the rise in undocumented Indian immigrants on foot,” November 14, 2023, explains the “push factors” that have led to a remarkable increase in Indian immigration into the U.S.
The numbers are startling: from October 2022 to September 2023, “there were 96,917 Indians encountered — apprehended, expelled or denied entry — having entered the U.S. without papers, a fivefold increase from the same period from 2019 to 2020, when there were just 19,883.” This situation also turns the immigration debate nearly upside-down, since of these nearly 97,000 “encounters,” some 30,000 were at the Canadian border, with almost 42,000 at the Mexican border. However, in other ways, their stories sound similar to U.S. ears. Scholars of the South Asian continent, India’s home, worry that the recent spike might have something to do with worsening conditions for minorities like Muslims, Sikhs and Christians in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which has been widely criticized for human rights violations.
In addition to religious and ethnic persecution, the Indian government passed “laws deregulating India’s agricultural sector in 2020 [which] threatened to upend the lives of many farmers, especially in the North Indian state of Punjab” (“What’s behind the rise in undocumented Indian immigrants on foot,” ), leading to immigration into the U.S. at both its northern and southern borders.
A more typical and familiar case for U.S. sensitivities is a somewhat parallel case, that of Venezuela, very much in the news in Denver and Colorado. Their immigration surge is also comparatively recent. According to a February 15, 2023 article,
“Venezuelan Immigrants United States,” by Ari Hoffman and Jeanne Batalova, from Migration Information Source; the number of Venezuelan immigrants in the United States has nearly tripled since 2010, coinciding with a period of severe economic and political crisis that has resulted in the largest prolonged displacement event in the Americas. The 545,000 Venezuelan immigrants in the United States as of 2021, the most recent year for which U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) data are available, account for just a small share of the more than 7 million who have fled Venezuela since 2015.
The increase is remarkable since as of 2010 the Venezuelan population was only 184,000, compared with 545,000 only 11 years later in 2021, an increase of 361,000 in such a short time. However, it is estimated that 1.8 million of the more than 7 million refugees from Venezuela were living in neighboring Colombia, with 942,000 in Peru, and elsewhere.
As with India and many other countries with “push factors,” Venezuela has suffered an economic collapse in the last few years, and a concomitant repression by the government, especially by President Nicolás Maduro. He served as Vice President under previous President Hugo Chávez. According to the article, “The Reasons Behind the Increased Migration from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua,”
by Arturo Castellanos-Canales (February 9, 2023), a “push factor” as early as 2014 was the “Sudden declines in the price of oil in 2014 (from $100 dollars per barrel to $50 dollars) and early 2016 (down to $30 dollars per barrel) [which] destabilized the Venezuelan economy and undermined the government of President Nicolás Maduro.” This is especially surprising since “Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves (more than 300 billion barrels – 17.5% of the world’s total), and the country’s economy depends on oil prices. Oil represents 95% of export earnings and roughly one-quarter of Venezuela’s gross domestic product (GDP).” With such an economy in turmoil, President Maduro unleashed “political repression, censorship, and electoral manipulation” (“The Reasons Behind the Increased Migration from Venezuela…).
It has been widely reported that inflation in Venezuela over the last several years has fluctuated intensely, with the International Monetary Fund indicating that Venezuela still, in 2024, stands alone, with an inflation rate of 200%, compared for example with the U.S. at 2.8%, México at 3.8%, and Chile at 3.6%.
With similar inflation numbers in the recent past in Venezuela, families have been left destitute.
These examples of immigration, from such distant and faraway countries as Venezuela and India, on separate continents but with similar stories, demonstrate the challenges the U.S. is facing in limiting immigration. With electoral manipulation, censorship of media and other outlets, severe political repression, economic bungling that essentially destroyed wealth possible with the world’s largest oil reserves, and inflation rendering bank accounts hollow, Venezuelans had little to no choice but to escape and to immigrate where possible, including the U.S., and including Denver.
Such immigration shows no abating in the future. In the meantime, citizens and residents of Denver can be proud of the honorable and benevolent assistance Mayor Johnston, the City and County administration, and our local citizens have all shown our new neighbors. Ultimately, we will be the better for it.
Luis Torres, Ph.D. The Weekly Issue/El Semanario Editorial Board Member, and Chris M. Frésquez, CEO & Publisher, The Weekly Issue/El Semanario.
