Denver’s Democratic mayor, Mike Johnston, has said he will encourage people to protest mass immigrant deportations planned by the president-elect Donald Trump in Colorado, as civic leaders in “sanctuary cities” begin to plan their response to the threat.
In an interview with Denver’s channel 9, Johnston, 50, said he is willing to go to jail to stop any deportation efforts. Denver’s neighboring city of Aurora has been a focus of the debate over migration after three apartment complexes were allegedly taken over by the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua.
In comments, Aurora city council member Danielle Jurinsky, a Republican, said she had spoken with Trump’s transition team about “Operation Aurora” and warned city leaders that “I hope that we are taking this seriously. This is coming.”
Metropolitan areas, including Denver, New York and Los Angeles, have offered mixed responses to Trump’s promise to deport a vast number of immigrants who are in the US illegally. “Sanctuary city” laws typically forbid city employees and resources from being involved in federal immigration enforcement.
On Friday, Tom Homan, Trump’s incoming “border czar”, vowed to send “twice as many” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents to Los Angeles to enact mass deportations. LA city council members have warned that Los Angeles will not be collaborating.
In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams has said the city has always welcomed immigrants and that law-abiding immigrants and families will be protected, but said that the current immigrant crisis had cost the city billions of dollars, and the federal government had not assisted it in dealing with the influx, estimated at more than 200,000 people.
“I’m not allowed to let them work [legally],” Adams said. “I’m not allowed to get them to participate in our tax system.”
But Denver’s Johnston walked back comments that he had made earlier this week to Denverite about sending police officers to the county line to stop federal agencies from entering the city.
“It’s like the Tiananmen Square moment with the rose and the gun, right? You’d have every one of those Highland moms who came out for the migrants. And you do not want to mess with them,” he said.
In the subsequent interview, he said he regretted using the Tiananmen Square image, from 1989, of a man blocking a tank during pro-democracy protests.
“Would I have taken it back if I could? Yes, I probably wouldn’t have used that image,” Johnston said. “That’s the image I hope we can avoid. What I was trying to say is this is an outcome I hope we can avoid in this country. I think none of us want that.”
Johnston added that his willingness to go to jail over the issue was real.
“I would if I believed that our residents are having their rights violated,” he said. “I think things are happening that are illegal or immoral or un-American in our city, I would certainly protest it, and I would expect other residents would do the same.”
The mayor also said he would encourage people to protest and that he is not opposed to all deportations – a line that other sanctuary city mayors have also sought to draw – including deportations for violent criminals.
“We think if you are a violent criminal that is committing serious crimes like murder or rape in Denver, you should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and you should be deported,” he said.
