Mayor Mike Johnston says that federal threats and funding cuts against Denver will go far beyond immigration issues.
The city already faces the loss of tens of millions of dollars in grants, as well as a federal lawsuit, over immigration issues, with the Trump administration singling Denver out as a so-called “sanctuary” city.
But in an interview this week, Johnston said the city is also facing federal pressure on other topics, especially related to diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Trump has moved to eliminate DEI policies and programs.
“Keep in mind, the threats on federal funding cuts are not going to be unique to immigration. They're going to be about our willingness to sign allegiance or bend the knee on every single executive order the president has issued,” Johnston told Colorado Public Radio’s Ryan Warner.
DEI is meant to counter racism and other biases, opening ways for people from different backgrounds to advance in careers and education, but Trump has declared it a "radical" policy that is neither fair nor merit-based.
“So will we disavow every diversity, equity and inclusion practice?" Johnston asked. "Will we align to all of their policies around transgender sports participation? It will not be similarly or simply a question about immigration. Will you sign on to all of their policy prescriptions in the executive orders?”
The city had already received specific messages asking it to “sign affirmations of support for those executive orders in order to do things like qualify for simple road and bridge funding.”
One example is a sidewalk grant that the city considered applying for, which came with a request that applicants sign on to Trump administration stances on DEI. The city did not do so, according to spokesperson Jon Ewing, but still hopes to work with the feds on a way to move forward on that grant and others “without compromising our specific values” on DEI, Ewing said.
Ewing could not immediately provide a copy of the grant documents.
“And so this is one where we're not going to be bullied or blackmailed out of our values. We're not going to abandon the belief that we think there are real histories of racial inequality in this country,” Johnston said. “And so we think it is just a slippery slope to start compromising your values in the pursuit of federal dollars. So we'll stand for what we believe in, and we'll fight for all of our taxpayer dollars because we believe we're entitled to them”
“They are just angry because we're not actively cooperating”
Meanwhile, Johnston said he wouldn’t budge on immigration-related threats, either.
“Denver abides by all of the laws that are required of us, and there's no grounds by which they could cut federal funds,” Johnston said in the interview.
“ … They are just angry because we're not actively cooperating and doing their job. For them, that would be like them being angry that we're not solving the Ukraine war for them. That is an explicit federal power, which is managing immigration, managing foreign affairs. Cities don't do that. They can't sue us for not doing a federal job when we don't violate any federal law.”
Johnston acknowledged that Denver is not as “collaborative” with federal immigration agents as other cities. But he contended that about half of Americans live in jurisdictions with similar policies to Denver and Colorado.
The mayor said that the city of Denver does not stop employees from sharing immigration information with federal agents — instead, it bans the city government from collecting it in the first place.
“Our employees don't have that information. We don't ask it, and so we're not hiding any of that data,” he said.
The city isn’t going to start collecting immigration information, either. Doing so would discourage immigrants from testifying at trials, going to hospitals and more, he said.
But, he added: “We would partner with the federal government and actively [be] looking for you if you had committed a violent crime, but if your only civil infraction was you crossed the border without proper documents, but now you are working in our community, going to the local neighborhood church and taking your kids to school, that is not a safety threat for Denver.”
