Washington, D.C. — Today, Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper welcomed the announcement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that $8.6 million in federal funding will be made available to assist Denver’s migrant support efforts. Last month, Bennet and Hickenlooper urged DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to support the state of Colorado and city of Denver as they handled a surge in migrant arrivals. Mayor Michael Hancock thanked the senators for their assistance.
“In recent months, the city of Denver and state of Colorado have united to address the immense humanitarian needs of migrants from our southern border – spending millions of dollars to shelter and support these migrants and straining local resources,” said Bennet. “I’m appreciative that the federal government answered our calls to provide more support to Denver, and we’ll continue to push for more federal support in the days ahead.”
“Denver has used its own money to support, house, and feed more than 11,000 migrants since December,” said Hickenlooper. “We urged DHS to help Denver continue providing this lifesaving humanitarian relief and we’re grateful they listened.”
Since December 2022, Denver and Colorado together have spent over $21 million to serve migrants, straining local and state resources. That financial strain has only increased in anticipation of and following the end of Title 42. Up to this point, the city has been covering costs using contingency funds and agency budgets.