A sanctuary city mayor, who once suggested he’d use his police force to stop deportation officers and be willing to go to jail over the matter, is now signaling that he wants to work with federal immigration authorities under certain circumstances.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said the city will cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in cases involving violent criminal migrants and will notify the agency of an impending release if ICE makes a request, according to statements Johnston gave to Fox31. The comments follow the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) establishment of a working group tasked with investigating sanctuary jurisdictions.
“The whole state is bound by our state law in this, which is pretty consistent in some of these practices like everywhere in the state, we don’t honor ICE detainers,” Johnston said to FOX31. “If ICE calls and says, ‘Will you hold someone for three more days?’ That doesn’t happen in Douglas County or Yuma or in Denver.”
“A lot of these practices are similar statewide, but we think ours finds a common-sense balance of making sure we’re not having our local police doing federal law enforcement, that’s not our job, we’re not going to do ICE’s job for them,” he continued. “But, if they call for information on folks we have in custody, we’ll let them know when we’re releasing them.”
The comments appeared to come in sharp contrast to his rhetoric immediately following President Donald Trump’s election victory, an outcome which brought the prospect of large-scale deportation operations much closer to reality.
Johnston in November suggested he would deploy the Denver Police Department to the county lines to stop federal immigration officials from entering the city’s jurisdiction. While he walked those comments back later that month, he did affirm that he was not afraid of going to jail for standing in the way of border czar Tom Homan’s enforcement agenda.
The Denver metro area has accepted over 42,000 migrants from Central and South America since December 2022, according to the Common Sense Institute. The group estimates that Denver taxpayers and other local organizations have spent as much as $340 million to feed, clothe, shelter and provide other services to them.
Last year, Johnston announced sweeping budget cuts in order to allocate enough money for migrant services, with an $8.4 million reduction from the city’s police department and a $2.5 million reduction in funding to the fire department.
Homan previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that, while local authorities have the right to step aside and not assist ICE agents, they cannot blatantly obstruct the agency from conducting its mission.
“There are federal statutes on the books for knowingly concealing and harboring an illegal alien away from ICE officers,” Homan said to the DCNF. “There are statutes on the books about impeding federal law enforcement officers – they’re all felonies.”
“Now these sanctuary cities cannot assist – ok, that’s fine. They can stand aside, that’s fine, but they cannot cross that line,” Homan continued. “If they cross that line, we’ll be asking the attorney’s office to consider prosecution.”
The Trump administration appears to be ratcheting up its fight with jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate. The DOJ has just established the Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group, which is tasked with identifying state and local laws or policies that are “inconsistent” with federal immigration initiatives and, when necessary, challenging those laws in court.
U.S. attorney’s offices and litigating components within the DOJ will also be tasked with investigating “misconduct” by any officials that obstruct federal immigration enforcement and will seek prosecution.
The border czar has taken particular interest with Denver and said he has no issue prosecuting Johnston in jail if he crosses the line.
“But, look, me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing. He’s willing to go to jail, I’m willing to put him in jail,” Homan said to Fox News in November.
A spokesperson for Denver did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
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