Denver Mayor Mike Johnston (D) sounded the alarm that his city is nearing a “breaking point” as it struggles to keep up with the flood of migrants.
“I think our city is very close to its breaking point now,” Johnston said in an interview aired Wednesday on “Fox & Friends.”
“And we’ve been talking to leaders in D.C. around the country about why we need them to take action here. I think we have successfully welcomed almost 40,000 migrants in the last year and — and we know what it takes to do this successfully, we just need that help,” he continued.
In the interview with Fox News’s Lawrence Jones, Johnston said more needs to be done to address the influx of migrants crossing into the United States, including getting resources to streamline work authorizations and more federal support.
“And the things we need are — yes, we need federal dollars, but the most important thing is we need, you know, work authorization for folks when they arrive, and we need those resources at the border so you can add more security at the border and so you can help process those asylum claims so the folks that do arrive here can work,” Johnston said.
Cities across the U.S. have been attempting to welcome thousands of migrants as record numbers of people have been entering the country at the southern border. Republicans have seized on the border situation as a rallying cry, with many demanding that President Biden take action as bipartisan Senate negotiators huddle to reach a critical deal on the matter.
Democratic-led cities are also dealing with additional migrants as Republican governors, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), bus migrants north. When asked if he agrees with Abbott sending the migrants to sanctuary cities, Johnston said he understands why he is doing so but that a handful of cities should not be responsible for the migrants.
“I think no one state should and no one city should. And I think that’s the same way we’ve approached it. You know, I think he’s mostly sending people to three cities, to New York and to Denver and to Chicago. And I think in the same way that no one state should carry it, no three cities should also carry it,” Johnston said.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) has also repeatedly called on the federal government to assist the city in dealing with the migrant situation. He has said that since last year, New York City has seen a surge of more than 160,000 asylum-seekers.
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