Colorado Republicans are sounding off on "out-of-touch" Democrats after Denver Mayor Mike Johnston vowed to station police to block ICE agents from carrying out deportations and a report showed that the city has spent over $356 million in taxpayer dollars on services for migrants.
The sum, which amounts to $7,900 per foreign national in the city and equates to 8% of the city’s total 2025 budget, was revealed by an updated analysis last week by the Common Sense Institute.
Rose Pugliese, leader of the Republican caucus in the Colorado State Assembly, told Fox News Digital that the massive influx of migrants in the state has resulted in heavier burdens on both local and state resources.
She said the Democrat-controlled legislature has spent an estimated $563 million on illegal immigrants since 2021, with $352 million of that on education spending alone.
"Without question, illegal immigration in Colorado has cost the state a significant amount of money that could have been spent supporting our constituents, roads, public safety, and other state services," she said.
Pugliese called Mayor Johnston "out of touch on this issue," saying that the results of the 2024 election "mandated illegal immigration as a top concern throughout America."
"Removing and deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes against our citizens is a reasonable position," she said. "Unfortunately, there is no public estimate by the state regarding illegal immigrants in Colorado. This is due to policy decisions by the majority in the state legislature over the last ten years."
"Preventing an accurate accounting only aggravates the issue for local and state budgets when planning," she continued, adding that "if you don’t know the numbers, you can never be right."
Meanwhile, Roger Hudson, a city councilman for Castle Pines, a small town just south of Denver, told Fox News Digital that "there's nothing kind, there's nothing hopeful" about what Democrats have done to the city.
According to Hudson, Denver has accepted over 45,000 migrants since 2022. He said that these migrants have taken up much of the funding meant for important services in the city, including public schools and parks.
"Now they're not mowing the grass in parks, the fountains are down, rec centers are closed, the homeless problem is completely out of control," he said. "What they’ve done to Denver is horrific."
He also called out Democrats for shipping migrants to communities around the city, such as Aurora, where members of the Venezuelan gang "Tren de Aragua" terrorized an entire apartment building.
VENEZUELAN MIGRANT GANG TREN DE ARAGUA NOW OPERATING IN 16 STATES: REPORT
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"These migrants are preying on each other, they are abusing women, elderly women, elderly individuals, people who are disabled, they are robbing, they are causing a drug problem that wasn't here before in our state."
"What the Democrats and what our liberals and progressives have done in our state is obscene, and it shows, and our residents are tired of it," he went on. "In the past, it had been filled with hope. I mean, you have the Rocky Mountains in the background where there's nothing but hope and aspiration. Now, when you look down, and you look at the streets, they are filled with people begging not for food, but for their next fix or for a bottle of alcohol, and their souls are crushed."
A representative for the Denver City Council declined to comment on the $356 million spent on migrant services. Instead, the representative told Fox News Digital: "The Denver City Council is the legislative branch of the city government and isn’t involved in the day to day operations of these services."
