When 55 Central American asylum seekers arrived in Denver on Monday with short notice, the nonprofits and churches hosting them had to turn away volunteers.
A list that started with 350 names has since grown to more than 600.
It’s that type of enthusiasm and assistance that Denver would need if nonprofit leaders continue hosting asylum seekers who need a resting place after they cross the U.S.-Mexico border and before they’re connected with family and friends to await immigration court hearings.
The hosts also will need monetary and in-kind donations. And political support.
After the asylum seekers moved on this week, nonprofit and church leaders said they would discuss how the operation went and whether the city could handle similar waves of migrants seeking refuge in the United States. They’re still deciding whether they can handle the logistics and expense that would be required.
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If Denver agrees to take on more, the city would become a relief valve for overcrowded shelters in border towns where federal authorities are releasing people into the streets with no transportation to their next destination. The city would also further establish its claim as a welcoming city and its reputation for thumbing its nose at the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“I know that this is a very charged issue and that politicians of all stripes are making really broad, sweeping declarations of what’s happening at the border,” said Jennifer Piper, interfaith organizing director for American Friends Service Committee, one of the hosting nonprofits. But hosting asylum seekers is a concrete way for faith-based communities to make a difference, she said.
On May 11, The Annunciation House, which operates shelters in Las Cruces, N.M., and El Paso, emailed three Denver nonprofits to ask for help because its locations were at maximum capacity. It was the first time the Annunciation House had sent migrants outside Texas and New Mexico. The asylum seekers, mostly men and children from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, arrived in the wee hours of Monday morning. Most had moved on within 48 hours of arrival.
Within a city government that has made clear its disagreements with President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, word of the migrants’ travels arrived Saturday night. It came from a reporter calling City Attorney Kristin Bronson rather than from the New Mexico governor, who funded the travel.
Bronson was at the border just six weeks ago with a group of civic and business leaders. She met with migrant families, as well as border security officers, and has remained in touch with officials in border cities overwhelmed by waves of Central Americans fleeing violence in their hometowns.
“What we experienced this week was a nongovernmental organization and faith-based community that had reached its limit and used its own faith-based network to identify churches here in Denver,” she said.
Bronson and Mayor Michael Hancock see the movement of migrants as a responsibility best handled by charities and churches, rather than by city government. They have been told migrants will not be sent to Denver unless a local nongovernmental organization has the means and willingness to accept them.
“We really see this as an NGO-to-NGO effort, and that’s the way it has played out,” Bronson said.
The city believes its current health care and law enforcement resources are sufficient to handle migrants arriving in Denver who may require the help of anti-trafficking experts, urgent care clinics or police. City leaders anticipate that charities and churches will bear financial burdens.
That’s why the nonprofits are assessing whether they have the time and money to help regularly.
The Rev. Michael Hidalgo of Denver Community Church told his Instagram followers Tuesday that with less than 24 hours notice, a large number of people mobilized to volunteer whether to bring food and clothing or help connect asylum seekers with their sponsors.
“We’ve been asked multiple times, ‘What compelled you to do this?’ Our response is simple: In both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures we encounter a God of mercy and compassion; a God who loves the immigrant,” he wrote. “This is why we said yes, why we are involved, and why we opened our doors. The heart of God compels us.”
Organizers agreed that the experience went better than they expected.
“I’m really proud of Denver,” said Sarah Jackson, founder of Casa de Paz, one of the nonprofits that organized the effort. Casa de Paz works with immigrant families in Colorado who have been separated by detention.
The nonprofits are still figuring out a lot of logistics, but they don’t want too much time to pass, either, Jackson said.
“We want to keep the momentum going. … We have a lot of people in the community who care, not just with their words but with their actions,” she said.
Despite some misconceptions, the asylum seekers aren’t placing a huge strain on the city’s resources, Piper said.
The asylum seekers typically stay at a shelter for a maximum of 60 hours as they are connected to their friends and family.
At the border, authorities are limiting the number of asylum seekers who can cross through official ports of entry. That policy is forcing people to cross at other places and then wait for Border Patrol agents to find them. Then, they apply for asylum. Once approved for asylum, they are released.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement this week that Border Patrol agents and ICE agents began releasing “non-criminal, processed family units” on March 19 and since then had released more than 40,000 people with notices to appear in court.
The migrants who boarded the bus to Denver weren’t coming to Denver because that’s where they wanted to stay, Piper said. Instead, they were traveling to friends and family across the United States. Only one was staying in Colorado, Piper said.
But they needed a place to rest before continuing their journeys.
Despite large numbers of volunteers, regularly hosting asylum seekers would not be easy. Piper estimated that it would require 10 to 20 hours per week of planning from a larger organization. Someone needs to coordinate volunteers, food, bed space, medical evaluations and attorneys who can help lead orientations. Her nonprofit and others of similar size can’t take on the extra work regularly, she said.
Piper envisions additional resources from larger nonprofits and government agencies.
Government assistance could come through logistics, organizers said, such as the use of an empty gym or school building during the summer.
Transportation remains an issue.
The New Mexico governor paid for the first bus to Denver, but Denver nonprofits and faith communities can’t fund future buses, Piper said. The New Mexico governor’s office has been encouraging donations to the Santa Fe Community Foundation to help fund transportation.
While local government is reluctant to pay for more asylum seekers’ travel and care, politicians are offering their moral support and pushing back against any attempt at labeling Denver a sanctuary city.
Hancock, who is facing a tough re-election fight, avoids the sanctuary city label, which has become a pejorative term on the political right and an attack line for Trump.
“I think the values and labels that we embrace are being inclusive, being compassionate and being welcoming to people, no matter where they come from,” he said.
Hancock vocally fought back last month when Trump considered sending undocumented immigrants to Democratic “sanctuary cities” as a political punishment. On Thursday, the mayor said Democratic cities have been forced to expend taxpayer dollars on migrants because of Trump’s unfair immigration policies.
“We know now that that was already occurring in places like El Paso and Albuquerque without most of the folks knowing about it. People in El Paso and other cities around there have been picking up the tab,” Hancock said.
Colorado Democrats have pushed back, in the small ways they can, against Trump on immigration. Gov. Jared Polis’ office says he will keep in place his predecessor’s executive order prohibiting the use of state taxpayer funds for enforcement of family separation policies at the southern border. The state is also suing the Justice Department for withholding grant funds over an immigration enforcement dispute.
Leaders applauded the work of volunteers this week for displaying what they say are the city’s values of inclusiveness and care toward desperate people seeking asylum.
“I’m proud of the compassion that the people of Denver have shown these refugees,” said U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Denver Democrat. “If our president had as much compassion as the people of Denver have, we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.”