Democratic Denver mayor calls for federal support amid 'unsustainable' migrant crisis: 'A solvable problem'

Democratic Denver Mayor Mike Johnston joined "Fox News Sunday" to discuss the migrant crisis in his city and argued that the current structure was "unsustainable," while advocating for migrant work permits. 

Fox News' Shannon Bream asked Johnston about a statement by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who described work permits as a "magnet" for migrants and said it undermined the administration's attempt to deter migrants from coming to the U.S. 

The Denver mayor said there were plenty of jobs that migrants could fill, and said Denver had "far more open jobs right now than we have arrivals."

"What we know is, this works if you coordinate that entry, you know if you have cities and states that collaborate the same way we did when we brought in refugees from Ukraine or refugees from Afghanistan, we identified cities that had capacity, we brought them in with work authorization, we gave them some federal support and those people have succeeded tremendously," he said. 

Democratic Denver Mayor Mike Johnston joined "Fox News Sunday to discuss the ongoing migrant crisis.  (Fox News)

"I'm actually hopeful that this is really a solvable problem," he added. He told Bream that the crisis was "unsustainable" in the current structure. 

"When we have 30 or 40,000 people arriving without work authorization, without federal support, it is going to be a huge strain on cities. But that doesn't mean that we can't solve it," he said. "We could solve it if we actually had work authorization for folks that came, if we had resources at the border so that you could adjudicate these asylum claims faster, we have folks that arrive in Denver and their court dates are 2029." 

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Johnston told Bream that the majority of migrants he has spoken with came from Venezuela and added, "these are professionals, these are school principals and engineers." 

He said their stories were tragic but added that he agreed with Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, and said no one city should have to deal with the crisis. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott looks on during a news conference on March 15, 2023 in Austin, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

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"I understand Gov. Abbott's point, we agree, no one state or no one city should be expected to carry the entire weight of this arrival. But these are human beings with real suffering, who are going through incredible feats to get here," he said.

Johnston said that many of the migrants arriving in Denver did not intend to come to Denver. 

"So if they were sent to Denver through no goal of their own, then we help them arrive at the city where they were trying to arrive, and other cities do the same with us. We have folks that get sent to us from New York or from Chicago because they did have family networks here, and we think that's the best way to set them up for success, especially if they don't have work authorization in the city where they are arriving," he said.

Mayor Mike Johnston give an update on the City and County of Denver's State of Emergency on homelessness on July 25, 2023 in Denver, Colorado.  ((Photo by RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images))

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Johnston told Fox News on Friday that they needed more federal aid to help deal with the migrant arrivals. 

"I have called the White House," Johnston told ‘America’s Newsroom' hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino. "We've told them we need more federal aid. That's why there's dollars in that supplemental budget to do that."