Polis asks for work permits for newly arrived migrants

(Photo/El Comercio de Colorado)

COLORADO STOPED SENDING MIGRANTS TO NEW YORK AND CHICAGO

Newsroom El Comercio de Colorado

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Colorado stopped busing newly arrived immigrants to New York and Chicago. Governor Jared Polis said the Colorado government “has been assisting the city of Denver” since the beginning of the year so that new immigrants “reach their desired final destination” which, in about 1,600 cases, meant going to New York or Chicago. However, the mayors of New York, Eric Adams, and Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, asked Denver to stop the transport of immigrants to those cities. Polis asks for work permits for newly arrived migrants.

The governor’s office explained that Polis, Adams and Lightfoot had “a productive conversation” that concluded with the decision that Denver would no longer hire buses to transport immigrants. Polis ordered that transport service to be cancelled. Polis’s office emphasized that immigrants sent by bus to New York and Chicago had already decided to reach those cities on their own, but that the government decided to intervene when those plans were thwarted.

A million and a half has spent Denver

The weather conditions, at the end of December, and the limitations of personnel caused the cancellation of the trips. “We refuse to hold people against their will if they want to travel to another place,” warned the governor. The last bus with new immigrants, mostly Venezuelans, arrived in New York from Denver on Sunday, January 8. Official data from the Denver Mayor’s Office indicates that during the last four weeks some 4,000 immigrants arrived in that city.

Denver has spent $1.5 million to provide the necessary assistance to those thousands of migrants. At the same time, more than 70 percent of those people indicated that Denver was not their destination. For comparison, Chicago has received about 3,900 immigrants in the last four months, while New York has received more than 36,000 immigrants in the last nine months. According to Adams, his city will spend about a billion dollars in 2023 to serve these people.

Work permits

Arrives of migrants in Denver has become critical. Every day about 180 people arrive while now there will be few who leave the city to go to other destinations in the US. So far Denver has not received any federal funds to help with expenses for room, board, and medical care. Polis reiterated his request to President Joe Biden to issue work permits for these immigrants, “as well as better border security with the ultimate goal being immigration reform.”