Polis, Hickenlooper Wishes Come True---More Immigration Crushing CO

When Colorado Governor Jared Polis served five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2009 to 2018, he consistently voted in favor of less border and interior enforcement. Polis also voted for more worker visas, expanded refugee resettlement and more generous amnesty entitlements. In short, Polis earned a 3% or overall F- grade on his immigration-related votes. An F- grade puts Polis in the same group with other notorious open borders fanatics like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the so-called Squad, a progressive, anti-American group whose expansionist immigration agenda always demands higher levels, and Vice President Kamala Harris, currently a presidential candidate. Polis is not as well-known as the others but his vote on immigration-related legislation is equally important.

Difficult to believe though it is, Colorado’s two U.S. senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper are worse than Polis. Both have similar F- grades, but each received a 0% score when voting on bills that would strengthen immigration laws and cut employment-based visas to protect American workers. Critics accused Hickenlooper, who served as sanctuary city Denver’s mayor from 2003 to 2011 and Colorado’s governor from 2011 to 2019, of being soft on illegal immigration. Hickenlooper, during his mayoral term, co-owned the Cherry Cricket Restaurant which employed Raul Gomez-Garcia, a dishwasher with a fake Social Security card. On Mother’s Day, 2005, Gomez-Garcia shot and killed Denver police detective Donald Young. Young’s partner, Detective John Bishop, was wounded. Had Hickenlooper required his restaurant’s personnel department to use E-Verify, an online database that checks information on an employee’s I-9 form against data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration, Young might still be alive. That same year, Hickenlooper was the keynote speaker at a burrito breakfast fundraiser for El Centro Humanitario para los Trabajadores, Denver’s illegal alien hiring hall. When asked why Gomez-Garcia was not turned over to Immigration and Customs officials after he had been stopped three times for traffic violations, Hickenlooper dismissed the question: “These are complicated issues.”

Hickenlooper’s, Bennet’s, and Polis’ wish for more immigration has come true. Unchecked illegal immigration has crippled Denver, once a vibrant city with traditional values and associated with the Great American West. Hospitals, schools, and social services providers cannot keep up with the influx. The volume of illegal immigrants, estimated at 40,000, is so substantial that Denver has purchased on their behalf one-way tickets out of town. Their most popular destinations are Chicago and New York, two cities that cannot cope with their own, ongoing huge illegal immigrant crisis. From the onset of illegal immigrants’ arrival in December 2022 through the present, Denver has spent an estimated $42 million on their care exclusive of Denver Public Schools costs. The school district estimates it has enrolled 3,400 non-English speaking children this academic year at a cost of $14,100 per student, which adds $48 million more to taxpayers’ burden. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston projected that, by the end of 2024, his city would spend up to $180 million providing for illegal aliens, one-tenth of the city’s budget. The illegal immigrant fiscal burden has reached beyond Denver. Children have also enrolled in Aurora, Jefferson County, Cherry Creek, and Colorado Springs schools. UCHealth, which operates hospitals in Aurora, Greeley, and Colorado Springs, estimated it spent about $17 million in uncompensated care for migrants in a three-month span. 

Speaking of Aurora, Colorado’s third largest city about ten miles outside Denver, a gang of notorious Venezuelan Tren de Aragua (TdA) criminals recently commandeered an apartment complex believed to house some illegal aliens. Surveillance video captured three Spanish-speaking men carrying handguns while another held a long rifle as they entered the building, breaking into a unit shortly before a shootout left one person severely injured. TdA’s membership is 5,000-strong with annual profits between $5 and $10 million. Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens warned “Watch out for this gang. It is the most powerful in Venezuela, known for murder, drug trafficking, sex crimes, extortion, and other violent acts.” Owens echoed the Treasury Department’s assessment that TdA “is expanding throughout the Western Hemisphere and engaging in diverse criminal activities such as human smuggling and trafficking, gender-based violence, money laundering, and illicit drug trafficking.” Despite irrefutable video evidence, Polis, through his representative, initially downplayed the incident, minimized the threat, called it “imaginary,” and asked Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky to “stop trashing their city.” Later, Polis partially walked back his remarks. Coffman, however, confirmed that TdA has greenlighted its members to attack local police officers.

In the meantime, the Biden Administration resumed its Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, a illegal program that admits unvetted Venezuelan nationals as well as Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans into the country via the CBP-One app. In 2019, because of terrorism concerns, the State Department ended its diplomatic relationship with Venezuela. Neither the federal government---President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas---nor Colorado governor Polis will protect citizens against the invasion that dictator Nicolás Maduro has set in motion against his major geopolitical foe, the United States. Denver’s tragic situation will continue to spread to other municipalities unless law enforcement agencies are permitted to do their jobs. A more cynical take---the destruction of great American cities is the federal government’s objective, one it’s determined to achieve by allowing more unvetted illegal immigrants to arrive each day. Since Biden’s inauguration, more than 500,000 Venezuelans have entered the U.S., been given temporary protection from deportation and work authorization.

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org