DENVER — A video from inside a migrant shelter in Denver shows a city leader begging families to move on to other cities and warning of a bleak future if they stay.
In the clip obtained by 9NEWS, Denver’s Newcomer Communications Liaison Andres Carrera, who also serves as Mayor Mike Johnston's political director, tells newly arrived migrants that Denver cannot support them.
“The opportunities are over,” Carrera says to the group in Spanish. “New York gives you more. Chicago gives you more. So I suggest you go there where there is longer-term shelter. There are also more job opportunities there.”
Denver is offering to pay for migrants' onward bus fare to destinations of their choice, a decision decried by other cities also struggling with the migrant crisis.
The migrants Carrera is seen speaking to on video arrived in Denver on March 26 on a bus organized by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, according to a city spokesperson.
Abbott has bragged about flooding Denver and other so-called “sanctuary cities” with migrants who have crossed the U.S. border with Mexico.
“We have received too many migrants and that is why we ran out of resources,” Carrera tells an assembled crowd inside Denver’s main migrant shelter.
“We are not going to block you if you want to say here,” Carrera says. “If you stay here you are going to suffer even more and I don’t want to see this.”
Denver is enforcing strict limits on how long newly arrived migrants can stay in city shelters: two weeks for individuals and six weeks for families with children.
The clip shows kids milled about at Carrera’s feet as he speaks with their parents, some of whom may have walked much of the journey to the United States.
“You don’t have to walk anywhere, we can buy you a free ticket,” Carrera tells them. “You can go to any city. We can take you up to the Canadian border, wherever!”
A city spokesperson clarified that Denver is not buying bus tickets to Canadian cities but will help migrants travel to American cities near the Canadian border if they ask.
In the clip, Carrera makes an impassioned pitch to the migrants to leave Denver, offering Chicago, New York, and Miami as alternative destinations with more resources and more Spanish speakers.
As he wraps up his remarks, Carrera asks the crowd, “Okay, who wants to travel to different cities where there is more work?”
Little reaction is seen in the video.
“Who wants to stay in Denver?”
“Todos,” a migrant replies — everyone.
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