Denver Mayor Mike Johnston is between a rock and a hard place: Not only has he dealt with a flood of 40,000 migrants into the Mile High City since last year, now one encampment of migrants is demanding he capitulate to a list of eye-popping requests before they agree to move into city shelters — and they seem to be spurred on by the lefty activists.
The group of migrants, which floated around the city before camping out under a bridge on property owned by Union Pacific several weeks ago, issued the list of 13 demands on Monday; it included unlimited access to showers and access to “their own food with fresh, culturally appropriate ingredients provided by the City instead of premade meals” before they’d agree to clear out.
Other demands include housing assistance, “connection to employment support,” “a free immigration lawyer” and “privacy” within the shelter, plus a guarantee of “no sheriff sleeping inside & monitoring 24/7” in the shelter, as the migrants “are not criminals & won’t be treated as such.”
The list reads more like a tour rider from a particularly diva-ish rock band and less like a list of asks from people being offered countless freebies on the taxpayers’ dime — and it reeks of interloping by outside parties.
Put plainly: It’s hard to imagine so much entitlement coming from anyone but lefty crusaders serving as ghostwriters for migrants who largely don’t even speak English.
Plus: The demands were published on the Facebook page of Housekeys Action Network Denver, a homeless-advocacy group that has repeatedly inserted itself into the city’s handling of migrants since at least last year, and a member of the group, V Reeves, spoke to the media on the encampment’s behalf, insisting: “The camp as a collective came up with a list of demands.”
It’s hard to believe that this “collective” wasn’t heavily influenced by HAND.
HAND’s fingerprints have been all over the situation for months: In April, the group even organized a protest of Denver’s new Asylum Seekers Program, which cut the time migrants could stay in city shelters down to 24 from 72 hours (while offering six months of free housing, food assistance and workforce training to 1,000 migrants in the shelter system), with Reeves calling the change “a slap in the face.”
If the group truly wanted to assist these migrants, you’d think encouraging them to give up tent living and take the city up on offers of shelter would be the first step.
The migrants are better off refusing HAND’s “helping hand.”
