Mayor Mike Johnston hasn’t decided whether he’ll accept his latest invitation to Washington.
On Monday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform asked Mike Johnston to testify at a public hearing on “sanctuary jurisdictions,” singling Denver out as one of four cities that “stand out in their abject failure to comply with federal law.”
The Republican-led committee also asked Denver officials to share documents and information related to Denver’s “sanctuary policies.”
Johnston has not said whether he would accept the invitation. His spokesperson, Jordan Fuja, said the administration is reviewing the letter and will have more to say in the coming days.
“The most helpful thing Congressional Republicans could do right now is fix our broken immigration system,” Johnston wrote in a statement. “While they work on that, we will focus on running the cities that manage the consequences of their failure to act.
Many Denver officials say this is not a 'sanctuary city.'
While Denver has long been a welcoming city for immigrants and has laws limiting how law enforcement can — and cannot — work with federal immigration forces, the city has not formally called itself a “sanctuary city.”
The term does not show up in municipal law, but it’s often used by conservatives to criticize local governments whose policies protect immigrants. Here’s how the House committee defined the term, citing a recent New York Times story:
“Sanctuary jurisdictions are ‘states, counties or cities that put some limits on how much
they are willing to cooperate with federal agencies’ efforts to deport illegal aliens,’” the letter stated. “These jurisdictions take it upon themselves to decide what laws they will and will not abide by all for the purpose of shielding removable aliens, especially criminals, from federal law enforcement.”
The Justice Department has ordered state attorneys general to investigate cities that interfere with federal immigration enforcement.
But Denver does not directly interfere, former City Councilmember Robin Kniech recently told Denverite. The city just doesn’t go above and beyond what the law requires.
Fuja says the mayor has consistently said Denver law enforcement will work with ICE in the case of serious crimes.
In the letter, the committee states 12 states and hundreds of cities and counties have “sanctuary laws or policies.” The letter points to four “abject” cities in particular, Chicago, New York, Denver and Boston, whose mayors all were invited to testify.
“Citizens of all four cities have suffered due to sanctuary policies,” the committee claims.
Other mayors, including Boston’s Michelle Wu, New York’s Eric Adams and Chicago’s Brandon Johnson, received similar letters from the committee.
These hearings tend to include a lot of political theater and will likely be a chance for Republicans to grill Johnston — if only for a few minutes — about the city’s policies.
Johnston's critiques have made him a target
Johnston has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans and a critic of the federal government’s failure to pass immigration reform.
He has pledged to protest mass deportation, promised to keep the thousands of immigrants who arrived in the city over the past two years as safe as possible and upkeep the city’s longstanding value as a welcoming community.
That has made him a target for national Republicans.
“Denver is a sanctuary jurisdiction under Colorado law,” according to the letter, “and Mayor Mike Johnston confirmed that he was prepared to go to jail to protect illegal aliens from federal immigration authorities.”
Earlier this year, Johnston talked to Denverite about mass protests as one possible way Denver could protect immigrant communities from federal enforcement and told 9News he would be willing to go to jail over the issue if it came to that. However, he also said it’s not an outcome he’s seeking.
If Johnston decides to testify, it will be at a public hearing scheduled for 10 a.m. on Feb. 11.
