As Denver continues to struggle to absorb the city’s flood of immigrants, a nearby Colorado town unanimously decided in a 7-0 vote this week that it would not become a sanctuary city.
On Tuesday, the Monument City Council reviewed a resolution that was “drafted by a press conference held by El Paso County Commissioners and Colorado Springs City Council member Dave Donelson,” the Colorado Springs Gazette reported. Mitch LaKind, the mayor of Monument, Colorado, told Fox and Friends First on Wednesday that the town did not have the financial resources to take on an influx of immigrants in the way Denver, a sanctuary city, has.
“The goal is to make sure that Denver knows that we will not be accepting any busloads of migrants into our community,” LaKind said. “The main reason is that we don’t have a budget that matches theirs, and we won’t utilize taxpayer funds for the support of what they’ve decided to take on themselves as a self-declared sanctuary city.”
The city’s decision comes as Denver has taken in about 40,000 illegal immigrants just 40 miles away over the last year. The Mile High City’s population is over 700,000, making about 5% of the city immigrants.
“We just need that help, and the things we need are federal dollars, but the most important thing is we need work authorization for folks when they arrive,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston told the outlet last month. “We need those resources at the border, so you can add more security at the border, so you can help process those asylum claims, and so the folks that do arrive here can work.”
LaKind added that there was not enough room in Monument for immigrants whose limited stays at shelters in Denver have ended. He told the outlet that if immigrants come to Monument, city officials and police will work with the federal government to have them transported elsewhere.
“For the record, it is not my position as mayor, nor is it any position and authority of the council to expel and check papers on people that come into town,” LaKind told the Gazette. “It is not against the law to speak Spanish or any other language, so we are not going to play Gestapo tactics.”
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Another Colorado municipality, Mesa County, passed a similar resolution this week, declaring it will not become a sanctuary city because it cannot bear the responsibility of Denver’s surge of immigrants.
LaKind continued to tell Fox News that President Joe Biden should shut down the border and start deportations, saying, “The president has the power to do that. He’s had the power all along. He’s chosen not to.”
