Denver Government May Furlough Its American Staff To Put Illegals On Its Payroll

Original article here.

As Denver faces a budget crisis due to 40,000 illegal immigrants arriving in the last year, the city is using its resources to get the migrant population employed, warning hourly workers that they may lose hours to illegal immigrants and using the public school system to help the illegals get work permits, according to emails obtained by The Daily Wire.

Denver’s 9 News reported on Monday that the City of Denver warned its workforce of job cuts, reporting that while the city “says it is NOT laying off employees to pay for the migrant crisis,” it “IS telling hourly employees they may have their hours reduced to zero.” Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) told the outlet that because companies are generally barred from hiring illegal immigrants, the city may simply start hiring illegal immigrants itself — even though that is also illegal.

“If the federal government wants to come down and throw the book at us, we’ll deal with the legal costs,” Hickenlooper said.

Emails obtained under public records laws show that the city is also using its schools in the effort to get illegals employed. Denver Public Schools (DPS)worked with the city to help illegal immigrants get work permits, giving visas to foreigners to work for the school system so that schools have “adults who are reflective of our students.”

On October 19, 2023, Deborah Staten, deputy chief of staff for the superintendent, wrote to school board president Carrie Olson that the district’s hiring department was hosting “ELA-S Hiring Fairs and Visa-sponsored employee welcome events.” DPS’s hiring department hosted a “Community Hub” where it discussed “visa sponsorship eligibility” with job applicants, and a “Visa Sponsorship Welcome Night… for all of our DPS visa-sponsored employees.”

On Facebook, DPS said it had “over 200 teachers working with us on Visa Sponsorship and we are welcoming another 58 more in this school year. Representation matters and adults who are reflective of our students is essential!”

In addition to giving visas to foreign nationals to allow them to live in the country and work at the schools, the school district was also working with the city, the state of Colorado, and the federal government to help illegal immigrants settle in the United States for the long term, according to an email from Evan Dreyer, deputy chief of staff to Denver mayor Mike Johnston.

On November 6, 2023, Dreyer proposed using DPS buildings for “legal clinics in November and December to help new arrivals apply for Temporary Protected Status and Employment Authorization Documents.”

Temporary Protected Status is supposed to be given to people fleeing from countries that have “ongoing armed conflict” or other “extraordinary” conditions that make it impossible for illegal immigrants to return there. Yet the Department of Homeland Security has extended it to 16 countries, including El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Recipients can get Employment Authorization Documents.

Senator Hickenlooper told me today cities may have to hire migrants to work due to a lack of federal work authorization

“If the federal government doesn’t act, local communities are going to have to,” he said

Federal govt has signaled it could sue any city that does this pic.twitter.com/hz9oxZygii

— Marc Sallinger (@MarcSallinger) February 15, 2024

The emails, obtained by the parents’ group Parents Defending Education and shared first with The Daily Wire, shed light on the chaos and shifting loyalties in Denver Public Schools that have resulted from what a DPS official called an “incredible influx of New to Country Students.”

In 2021, DPS purchased a property that was intended to expand the Denver School of Arts, a magnet school that turns away 500 students a year because of space. The emails show the school system is now working with the mayor’s office to use the property as a “possible migrant shelter.”

The school system also wants to cancel standardized testing, giving up on tracking whether students are learning because poor scores by illegal immigrants would be bad optics for the school district. On January 10, Grant Guyer, DPS Associate Chief of Strategic Operations, wrote that he had “been tasked to explore regulatory and legislative solutions around getting a temporary pause state testing implications for DPS schools that have experienced a large increase of Migrant students.” That could be disastrous in ensuring that American students are recovering from COVID-era school closures.

Americans have fled the city’s failing schools in recent years, with declining enrollment threatening to bring lower budgets for schools. The school system initially wanted illegal immigrants because they would mask the fact that Coloradans were fleeing from the schools, and allow them to request the same budget.

Instead of closing schools, the district was “opening new elementary Newcomer Center at Montclair to support overflow” and considering two other “newcomer” centers, according to the emails.

But illegal immigrants don’t pay taxes, and the state was not able to cover the difference, leading to a nearly $20 million shortfall, education publication The Lion reported.

DPS and the mayor’s office did not respond to requests for information from The Daily Wire.

The school system refused to turn over 101 documents about migrants, including discussions involving how it is causing overcrowded classrooms, under the public records request.

Denver’s flirtation with illegally hiring illegal immigrants comes as the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security warned the University of California of consequences if it engaged in a similar plan.

Rep. Daryll Issa (R-CA) said the university system’s idea was disastrous, saying making it easier for illegal immigrants to work in the United States would serve as an incentive for more illegal immigration.

The university system seems less likely to pursue the scheme after it commissioned three legal opinions that all indicated that, contrary to a novel theory pushed by some professors, states are beholden to the same law that prevents private employers from hiring illegals.