A congressional committee has asked Denver Mayor Mike Johnston to testify in Washington, D.C., next month to defend the city’s policies limiting local police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
In a letter to Johnston on Monday, the U.S. House’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform identified Denver as one of four cities that “stand out in their abject failure to comply with federal law,” along with Chicago, New York City and Boston. The panel sent similar letters to those cities’ mayors.
The committee is investigating such cities as the newly inaugurated President Donald Trump plans to crack down on illegal immigration and carry out mass deportations. He has also threatened to withhold federal dollars from cities that won’t work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
“Denver is a sanctuary jurisdiction that refuses to fully cooperate with federal immigration enforcement,” according to the letter, signed by committee chairman James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky.
Denver has never adopted a policy calling itself a “sanctuary city,” but in 2016, City Council adopted a proclamation declaring the city “welcoming and inclusive of all people.” City officials the next year adopted an ordinance that provides protections to immigrants, and it follows a policy of not honoring detainer requests by ICE for inmates in the jail, except as required by law.
Colorado state law also restricts local cooperation with ICE, with many sheriffs only notifying ICE ahead of targeted inmates’ release but not holding them longer.
The committee’s letter also references comments Johnston made in November, including that he was prepared to go to jail to stop deportations of illegal immigrants. And it requested “documents and information related to the sanctuary policies of Denver.”
“The most helpful thing Congressional Republicans could do right now is fix our broken immigration system,” Johnston said through a spokesperson Monday evening. “While they work on that, we will focus on running the cities that manage the consequences of their failure to act.”
The mayor will consider the request to testify over the coming days, said Jordan Fuja, his spokesperson.
The letter says the committee, in part, “is investigating sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States and their impact on public safety.”
“In addition to the efforts of the Trump Administration to ensure federal immigration enforcement can proceed unimpeded,” the letter says, “Congress must determine whether further legislation is necessary to enhance border security and public safety. It is imperative that federal immigration law is enforced and that criminal aliens are swiftly removed from our communities.”
The committee invited Johnston to testify during a hearing set for Feb. 11. It requested city documents and communications meeting certain criteria going back to Jan. 1, 2024, regarding the city’s “sanctuary status,” with those records due to the committee by the day prior to the hearing.
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