Democrat Denver mayor Mike Johnston has been accused of giving violent and illegal gangs and cartels a “safe port” due to the city's “weak immigration laws.”
Johnston is one of four sanctuary mayors who faced a high stakes hearing before a House committee meeting on Wednesday to address the impact of these policies on cities.
R-Pa. When Rep. Scott Perry asked Johnston if he thought Denver was a sanctuary city, he replied, “We don't use that definition.”
“You're not a sanctuary because you don't use definitions?” Perry asked.
Bloodhirsty Venezuelan Gang notified when a new bill suppresses Blue State Sanctuary policy
Democrat Mayor Mike Johnston faces criticism of the Sanctuary City policy as immigrant gangs moved to Colorado. (Edward Romero and Getty Images)
“We call ourselves a welcoming city,” Johnston said.
Perry then wondered which criteria they were using to determine who they would welcome into the city.
“Well, we welcome everyone. We're not protecting people,” Johnston replied.
“So you welcome criminals who have no thoughts about what the background behind their crimes are. And is that okay?” Perry asked.
“No. We are actively pursuing violent criminals,” Johnston explained.
Photos were taken on the rooftop of the Downtown Denver Skyline on November 14th, 2018 at the Jacquard Hotel in Denver, Colorado. (Photo: Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
One of the major issues plaguing Mile High City is the rise in the presence of violent Venezuelan immigrant gangster Trende Aragaa (TDA), along with neighboring Aurora.
“Tren de Aragua, an illegal immigrant gang, has targeted Denver as headquartered in the US due to weak immigration laws,” Republican Colorado Rep. Gabe Evans told Fox News Digital.
Evans explained that the sanctuary state policy has cut public safety budgets to provide “immigrant influx” among other issues.
“Local hospitals have been hit, Denver's schools are overwhelmed, Fentanyl and Tusi are flooded with Colorado communities. Colorado is the third most dangerous,” shared Evans.
“As a police officer in the Metro region for over a decade, I have seen first hand contributions to these issues, and have seen a significant proportion of the responsibility for sanctuary cities and state policies that allow violent transnational criminal organizations and cartels to come to our community and find a safe harbor.”
Evans added that due to the Colorado Sanctuary policy, members of the TDA gang have also recently been released from detention.
On Wednesday, the city of Denver released a video showing Ice agents chasing and arresting members of the TDA gang who have just been released from prison.
Due to Sanctuary City's policy, he was released and fled when he met an ice agent. Ice said he assaulted the agent while he was in custody.
Johnston reaches out to the ice and asks them to sit down with them and move forward with the “best steps.”
Last April, Johnston announced $45 million in funding for a program to deal with the number of surges The arrival of immigrants Denver was facing, and the police department's budget cuts fell to more than $8 million.
The $45.9 million package that Johnston said was to fully fund the 2024 “newcomer” program, avoiding the worst-case scenario the city projected, adding to the $44 million spending already protected for the program through previous budget moves.
Denver Mayor says he is ready to go to prison for opposing the deportation of illegal immigrants
Mayor Mike Johnston previously announced major government budget cuts for the Denver city government, allowing him to deal more with the immigration crisis. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/Medianews Group/The Denver Post by Getty Images)
A Johnston spokesman previously rejected the statement of the cut as a police “refund,” with the 1.9% reduction below the average 2.5% reduction for all urban agencies. The cuts will not affect public services and no executives will be forced out of the streets, the spokesman said.
“The adjustments to the Denver Police Department budget in Denver were carefully crafted with safety leaders and Mayor Johnston to ensure that the department's public services are not affected.
In January, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) arrested around 50 illegal immigrants. Many of them have connections to the TDA, and the Trump administration is currently classified as a foreign terrorist organization.
Johnston previously promised to resist Trump's immigration policy, underscoring his commitment to protecting illegal immigrants in Denver and maintaining the sanctuary city status, saying it was “unbullying.”
Mayor Aurora blows up city Tren de Aragua and Denver counterparts due to immigration crisis
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston will be questioned by Council about his sanctuary city policies. (Hi Oangchan/Denver Post.)
“We're not going to sell out these values to anyone,” Johnston told Demberit in a previous interview. “We can't be bullied about changing them.”
When asked if he was ready to go to prison for the way of policies enacted by the administration, he said he “is not afraid of that.”
“Yeah, I'm not afraid of it, and I don't want it either,” Johnston told the Denver. “I think the goal is to be able to negotiate with reasonable people. [on] A way to solve difficult problems. ”
The former assistant director of the FBI told Fox News Digital that three other mayors who spoke with Johnston before the council, New York City Eric Adams, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu “we don't benefit from any kind of boon.”
“Cartels are powerful and infiltrate any city with loose law enforcement. Trump's law enforcement gains a lot after the cartel, but forks over the past four years, especially over the past four years, diverging into people, great terror, fraud schemes, and many other activities that are being destroyed by society in general.”
Click to get the Fox News app
Swecker added that in addition to cartel and drug troubles, all four mayors are hiding true crime statistics.
“The department is gamed the system and is not participating in the National Incident Based Reporting System, known as the FBI's new Crime Statistics Capture System. NIBRS captures more crime statistics in more detail. Many blue cities don't want it and claim they don't have the technology to implement the system.
Fox News Digital has requested comment from the Denver Police Union and Johnston's office.
Fox News' Bill Melgin, Ashley Papa, Adam Shaw, Stephen Solace and Sarah Lumpfin contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, murder, national crime cases, illegal immigration and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com
