Is Colorado Still Experiencing a “Migrant Crisis”?

In 2022 a massive wave of immigrants struck the state of Texas as many people fled Venezuela to escape violence. The Texas government response was to shuttle thousands of immigrants to Democratic-led cities such as Chicago, Denver, and New York, costing $148 million for bus transport alone and leaving cities reeling with the influx of immigrants. The “migrant crisis,” as it was quickly coined, lasted for about two years, with the highest concentration of people arriving in the United States in December 2023 and January 2024.

As Donald Trump takes office for a second term, administrators are preparing a massive push against immigration that will affect both immigrants living within the United States and those who are seeking asylum. The plan alludes to immigration and customs enforcement sweeps within major cities and bolstering employees at the border.

While the Trump administration gears up to claim a national emergency to dispatch Pentagon resources to the border, some Colorado locals question whether there’s even a “migrant crisis” at play at this point in time and how immigration has truly impacted the state in recent years.

Colorado as a state of immigrants

Across the state, one in 10 people is an immigrant, accounting for 9.8% of the state’s population with 81.4% of those individuals between the ages of 18 and 64. Comparatively, the United States’ migrant population is estimated to be about 14.3% — three times the percentage that it was in the 1970s.

After the Biden administration lifted asylum restrictions in 2021, a wave of new immigrants came to the United States, many of them landing in Colorado. About a year later, a bus full of immigrants made its way to the Denver Rescue Mission, but the shelter was already at capacity, marking the beginning of a challenging surge in immigration in the city.

In an attempt to find temporary housing for the incoming residents, the city began placing beds in recreation centers to respond to the growing number of asylum seekers. A few months later, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began sending busloads of immigrants to Denver as a political statement. Mike Johnston, Denver’s new mayor, became determined to work with immigrants to support Colorado’s economy.

Jon Ewing, the city and county of Denver’s marketing and communications specialist, told Yellow Scene, “I think Colorado’s obviously always been a state of immigrants. Denver’s always been a state of immigrants. Just like many other cities across the country, we experience what you call, quote-unquote, ‘normal patterns of immigration,’ and obviously all of that was completely uprooted in December of 2022.” Like much of the country, Colorado has been a receptacle for those who’ve been displaced from their own homes for many years, but the “migrant crisis” contributed to new city needs.

The impact was still startling. “We received 144 charter buses from the state of Texas. And that was like 10 buses or 11 buses a day. We were out of space. We were out of shelters. We were burning through cash. We were out of staff,” said Ewing.

The city floundered to accommodate an influx of immigrants but was determined to find a path forward. “We found ourselves in an emergency situation. We did what any other human being would do, which is you would take care of the person in front of you. And I think we’re proud of the response. It wasn’t perfect,” Ewing reflected. Some of the solutions the city enacted were far from perfect, but the intention was to rise to the occasion, supporting those who’d come to the region for better lives.

Guaido, left, and Maduro, engage in a power struggle in Venezuela

Economic instability in Venezuela

Since 1965, about half of U.S. immigrants came from Latin America, with Mexico topping the charts. More recently, a new trend began: Most people came from a specific region. “In this case, it was primarily from one country, and it was Venezuela,” said Ewing. About 43,000 people came through Denver’s city intake and reception.

Ewing added that he often has encounters with people who explained that they came to America to escape violence or because they were worried for their safety.

A combination of economic instability, political repression, and inflation drove a mass exodus from the country, which led many to migrate to Colombia, Peru, Chile, and the United States, in that order. The largest refugee displacement in the world, nearly 8 million people left Venezuela for new homes as of late 2023.

Yet in the past year, the flow of immigrants has slowed across Colorado, coming to just a trickle. Ewing explained, “That crisis is no longer a crisis, but that crisis went through multiple phases over a period of maybe a little over a year and a half.”

Opponents of immigration claim that the wave of immigrants is taking valuable resources from locals who need them. And while some city resources like housing are significantly strained throughout the state, immigrants also make a significant contribution to the economy. In fact, across the United States, immigrants pay about $4.6 billion in federal taxes annually, $2 billion towards state and local taxes, and $2.6 billion towards Social Security. In the state of Colorado, immigrants contribute more than $400 million in taxes every year.

Life as an immigrant in Colorado

Factors such as a diverse economy, progressive climate, and a reputation as a “sanctuary city” are just a few reasons why many immigrants land in Colorado. Whether Colorado should have an open door policy is another question. Although immigration laws are federal, immigration enforcement is often carried out by the state. The Trump administration is calling for federal resources to be dispatched to sanctuary cities for the deportation of undocummented immigrants.

Fetien Gebre-Michael and her team celebrating 5 years of business

Fetien Gebre-Michael, the owner of Konjo Ethiopian Food, an immigrant, and a former employee of the Denver Housing Authority told YS, “I think everyone deserves an opportunity no matter where you’re from. I see both sides because I, myself, am an immigrant. And I see what my parents came from. And I know current immigrants are just trying to survive and take care of their families. But I also see the other side of those that are already here who need resources who are now having those resources diverted to immigrants coming in. People here need help. So what can we do to balance that?”

Gebre-Michael came to Colorado as a 3-year-old after violence erupted at home. “We fled Ethiopia in the late ‘70s because of the war that’s going on. We fled and claimed asylum in Israel. We were in Jerusalem for 3-4 years. Then we came here as refugees. We had political asylum,” she explained.

Gebre-Michael stated that immigrating to the United States seemed easier when her family came along. Since then, there’s been a change. “I feel like there’s been a general shift in society regarding how immigrants are viewed. Instead of seeing them here as an addition, we’re seeing them as a burden,” she said.

And she isn’t wrong. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-immigrant legislation has increased by 375%. In fact, more than 550 anti-immigrant proposals appeared across the nation, the majority of which came from southern states and Republican-leaning territories. Yet immigrants play an essential role in bolstering the American economy.

“They do the work that no one else wants to do. And they don’t care what the work is as long as they can care for their families. And they’re hard workers,” she added. In fact, as of 2024, more than 32 million immigrants contributed to the national work force — or 19%. The U.S. Joint Economic Committee described immigrants as a “vital” component of the U.S. economy — especially after the pandemic began, when immigrants disproportionately worked in “essential jobs.”

Is the “migrant crisis” over?

Many of the immigrants who came to the city of Denver between 2022 and 2024 simply used the area as a stopover point. According to Ewing, the city didn’t track where immigrants went after they left Denver’s shelter, but the city estimates that somewhere between 40-60% (or roughly 20,000) of those who came to the city quickly prepared to travel elsewhere.

Still, Colorado faced a significant challenge when it came to housing and supporting immigrants and refugees who came to the state. The wave of immigration that took place through 2022 and 2023 accounted for “ 4.5% of our population, most per capita of any interior city in the country from what we could tell. It was a massive effort and massive change,” said Ewing.

Despite the large number of immigrants that traveled to Colorado, the tide is starting to go out. “You don’t see it as an emergency situation anymore because it isn’t, but I mean there are, you know, there is an impact, and there will be changes that will be felt in Denver and surrounding areas for years to come,” said Ewing.

While some border towns are continuing to experience migrant surges, the “migrant crisis” that began in 2022 has largely come to an end according to Ewing. And it’s unlikely that a wave of immigrants on that scale will occur again anytime soon. “I don’t think it’s once in a generation. I think it’s a once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing … I don’t think that, I can’t imagine that ever happening again,” he said.

Managing immigration on local and federal levels

Facing the mass immigration over the past couple of years presented Denver with difficult-to-navigate dilemmas. “As a city, we can do certain things, but we can’t rewrite federal law,” said Ewing. “Like if we could wave a magic wand and give, you know, every hard-working person from Venezuela temporary protected status, we would do that, right?”

One piece of this equation has been asking for an expansion of temporary protected status. Colorado eventually received this expansion in the summer of 2023, just in time for the largest surge of migrants that took place between October 2023 and January 2024.

A point of great pride to some Colorado officials, the city has successfully supported many immigrant transitions. “We just, through our own clinics, have gotten 4,300 people through, you know, work authorization assistance over this last year,” said Ewing. “And we’re going to keep doing that.”

The way to a better future

Some of the struggles that local immigrants face include competing for the same jobs as well as affording the cost of life in Denver. “I don’t care if you have legal work or not, Denver is an expensive city, and there isn’t enough affordable housing to go around,” said Ewing.

The first part of the integration process for immigrants in Colorado is to find housing, but this was just one step among many along the way. “It’s still important to us to make sure that path is there. And so that work won’t change,” said Ewing. “We have to make sure that people aren’t being evicted. We have to make sure that people have the resources they need. We have to keep working through work authorization for folks who have it or have an ability to get it. Work authorization can be such an important process.”

The city of Denver is still attempting to match immigrants in need with employers to create long-term stability, but the opportunities have become scarce since the area received an influx of people. Yet the motivation to support immigrants remains strong among Colorado officials.

Immigrants generally have to obtain lawful permanent residency for five years before they can apply for permanent citizenship in the United States. While many immigrants take the steps to obtain legal citizenship, the city of Denver continues its efforts to support general prosperity among those who call the area their home. “We’re invested in making sure that anybody in Denver has a good life whether they were born here or whether they came here yesterday. That’s what we’re focused on is just life on the ground.”

As far as Ewing is concerned, fostering a healthy state is vital to supporting its wellness. Folding everyone into the “fabric of our community” is the end goal no matter whose life is in question.