Denver plans to sweep immigrant encampment at Elitch Gardens

Juan Carlos — who said he traveled from Peru through several jungles and crossed the U.S. border — found himself living in three different immigrant encampments in Denver in as many months.

In multiple ways, his story is a microcosm of the crisis that began to engulf the city some 16 months ago, when immigrants who illegally crossed the southern border headed for America's interior cities, such as Denver, New York and Chicago.

Notably, it illustrates Mayor Mike Johnston's response — and some of the results.

Under fiscal strain, Denver — which has effectively embraced the "sanctuary city" label; the city says it "continues to remain a welcoming city for all newcomers" — has opened and then closed shelters for immigrants, and lengthened and then shortened the time they could stay at places via vouchers that ultimately expire.

Like Carlos, some of the immigrants have cycled through the city's shelters.

Inside a building one day.

Out in the open the next.

In the last two months, Carlos has been living in a large encampment outside of Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park. He is among roughly 50 immigrants that have set up tents outside Denver’s downtown theme park.

Denver officials plan to sweep the encampment on Thursday.

The mayor's office said all of the immigrants at the encampment would be offered housing at a temporary, congregate shelter on Zuni Street.

“We are working closely with advocates and partners to ensure everyone living at (Elitch Gardens) has a viable next step, including offering congregate shelter to everyone staying at this site,” Jordan Fuja, who speaks for the mayor, told The Denver Gazette.

Fuja said the city and its nonprofit partners will continue assisting “every shelter resident to help them create a long-term plan, including finding housing and work, and for some, traveling to a destination where they may have family, friends, or easier access to affordable housing and work opportunities.”

The Elitch Gardens encampment, located north of the theme park, is lined with tents stretching around Elitch Circle. On Tuesday, immigrants packed up and cleaned, while children were out playing in the parking lot.

Some of the immigrant advocates who spoke to The Denver Gazette blamed the city for the encampment situation.

“It's not that I'm saying the camp should exist in the state that it's in, but the city created this,” said Amy Beck, who often visits homeless or immigrant encampments to conduct outreach efforts. “These are 'exits' from the hotel for people who are not working or for some who aren't working, or they're in the process of moving down their path. Everybody in this camp is in that process.”

That's a reference to immigrants who arrived in Denver, were offered shelter via vouchers that since expired and now find themselves in the streets.  

“This camp is a safety net for families,” Beck added. “As soon as we lose this encampment, there's no safe space for people and families to go."

Sarah Plastino, the new czar of Denver's immigrant response, said last week she has “no tolerance” for children living on the streets and would immediately work to find transitional housing for families.

Early in the immigration crisis, Denver officials decided the city would assume the responsibility to temporarily house, feed and transport arriving immigrants. That decision has cost $61 million — and counting.

Hotels and lodging for the immigrants account for the lion share of city spending on the crisis at roughly 36%, according to Jon Ewing, a spokesperson for Denver Human Services.

Denver taxpayers are shouldering the bulk of those costs, despite state and federal grants.

Already, the crisis prompted the city to cut down on some services. The city reduced hours and eliminated in-person renewals at the Department of Motor Vehicles, as well as placed its five DMV locations at weekly closures on a rotating basis every four weeks.

The Department of Parks & Recreation, meanwhile, reduced operating days from seven to six days weekly.

Earlier this month, city officials sent a letter to 14,000 landlords looking for vacant rental properties for less than $2,000 a month in an effort to find affordable housing for immigrants who have exhausted their shelter voucher.

The city made the request after deciding to close four of the shelters for immigrants, a move that is expected to slash the city’s spending estimate on the illegal immigration crisis from $180 million to $120 million.

Denver's neighbors are closely watching its strategies. Many, including Aurora, have deliberately avoided being tagged with a "sanctuary status." Others, worried about getting saddled with the costs after seeing what's unfolding in Denver, have gone further to try and deter immigrants from coming into their territories.

In fact, Denver was already in the throes of a homeless crisis — which Johnston vowed to eliminate at the end of his first term as mayor — when 90 immigrants were dropped off in the cold downtown some 15 months ago.

In the ensuing months, Denver received nearly 40,000 immigrants — mostly from South and Central America — who illegally crossed the border with Mexico. Many of the immigrants arrive homeless and without work authorization, leaving them in a temporary stay shelter or living out on the streets or encampments, which inevitably get swept by the city.

While Colorado's elected leaders often blame Texas Gov. Greg Abbot, roughly 10,000 in fact, have already arrived in the Front Range's most populous city even before the Texas Republican began busing immigrants to here — drawn, according to officials in El Paso, Texas, by the free shelter and onward transportation that Denver offers.   

 “There’s a pull factor created by this, and the policies in Denver for paying for onward destinations,” Irene Gutiérrez, executive director of El Paso County Community Services in west Texas, earlier told The Denver Gazette.  

Carlos said he was a part of two other sweeps, including the closure of the immigrant encampment at Zuni Street in early January, where some 300 immigrants lived.  

“I feel that the city, or the mayor, can give us a place so we can be in the right place, so we can be safe,” Carlos said in front of his tent on Tuesday.

He said the city should provide more outreach at immigrant camps.

“But real outreach," he said, suggesting that Denver should send people to teach English and get to know the immigrants, instead of “just bringing us water and such.”

The Elitch Gardens encampment has grown since Feb. 1, and Beck, the local advocate, said she believes it is now the biggest immigrant encampment in the city.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said tens of thousands of immigrants have arrived in Denver by the time Gov. Greg Abbott began busing them to Denver. In fact, the number is roughly 10,000.