Tackling the No. 1 issue in Colorado: Immigration | Vince Bzdek

“They let — I think the real number is 15, 16 million people into our country. When they do that, we got a lot of work to do. They’re poisoning the blood of our country. … I said, 'No, they're not humans, they're not humans, they're animals.’” — Donald Trump, 2024

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” — Inscription on the Statue of Liberty

How does a reasonable American reconcile two polar opposite ideas like this? On the one hand is a statement of national values, that our country should be a beacon for immigrants of all kinds, and in those immigrants lies America’s repeated revitalization. And on the other hand, we have a former president’s statement that immigrants are somehow lesser, and are overwhelming our resources and threatening to ruin the things that made our country great to begin with.

Which is it? What is the right approach to immigration in the year 2024?

Clearly, immigration has become a complex and emotional debate in which Americans do not hold neatly monolithic views.

Even if we do still subscribe to those words on Miss Liberty, which I’m guessing most of us do, we just don’t have the resources any more to take on all the world’s huddled masses in an unchecked flow. Otherwise those of us who are second- and third- and fourth-generation immigrants — for most all of us are descended from immigrants to this country at one time or another … end up cutting back on services for those citizens in need who are not newly arrived. And a flood of too many immigrants from one trouble spot in the world, namely Mexico and Latin America, steals away slots for refugees from other trouble spots such as Eastern Europe or the Mideast. Then our immigration policies lose their promise of equal opportunity for all.

Denver has now become one of the country’s flashpoints in this frustrating debate. At last count, nearly 41,000 immigrants had arrived in the city in the last 16 months, and city officials said the response this year will cost $90 million and they will need to cut other city services including public safety to pay for the care of those immigrants. At the same time, recent studies show illegal immigration pumps roughly $2 billion into the Colorado economy each year.

Meanwhile, Aurora, Colorado Springs and other jurisdictions have adopted resolutions saying they cannot afford to spend money on this crisis.

Coloradans now say this is the most important issue in the state, according to a recent poll.

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas is the person who brought this crisis to Denver’s doorstep by busing immigrants out of his state to sanctuary cities like Denver, Chicago and New York, something he is unapologetic about.

“Before we began busing illegal immigrants up to New York, it was just Texas and Arizona that bore the brunt of all of the chaos and all of the problems that come with it,” Abbott said in an interview with ABC News’ "Nightline" a year ago. “Now the rest of America is understanding exactly what’s going on.”

So what exactly is going on?

We hope to try to answer that question by taking a hard look at all sides of the immigration crisis roiling Denver and the country right now in a Denver Gazette/9News Colorado Conversation on Tuesday, May 7, 7 to 8 pm. at the Stockyards Event Center, 5004 National Western Drive in Denver. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Please join us live at the events center and bring your questions, or watch the debate livestreamed on denvergazette.com, coloradopolitics.com and 9News.com. You can register at this link.

Panelists at the town hall will include key players and a range of different perspectives in this debate: Mike Johnston, mayor of Denver; Mike Coffman, mayor of Aurora; Violeta Chapin, associate dean for community and culture and clinical professor of law at University of Colorado Law School; Abe Laydon, commissioner, Douglas County; and DJ Summers, director of policy and research, Common Sense Institute.

Moderator Luige Del Puerto, editor of The Denver Gazette and Colorado Politics and a first-generation immigrant himself, tells me panelists will be trying to answer the toughest of questions:

• Why are so many immigrants flooding into the country and specifically into Denver now?

• What needs to be done in Washington to stop the border crisis?

• Do immigrants steal jobs from American citizens, or do they do the jobs like cleaning toilets and picking fruit that Americans don’t want to do?

• Is the issue jobs or is it more about housing, when we already have an affordable housing crisis in Colorado?

• Has Denver helped to create the crisis it is in — by offering immigrants free shelter and transportation?

• Should Denver repeal its “sanctuary city” ordinances?

Johnston, the mayor at the center of the current storm who will be one of our panelists, recently gave a preview of the complexity of the conversation to come:

“There is a cycle that has been happening for hundreds of years in America," Johnston said in a press conference. "People live in a home country that denies them fundamental rights and opportunities. And so, after struggle, or persecution, or violence, they turn their eyes to that beacon of freedom we call America. … Each of these waves of immigration seem overwhelming at the time. But each became in our American story a vibrant thread that wove the fabric of America. … We built, with them, the greatest country in the world. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. And when migrants began to arrive in Denver by the busload we faced a crisis, the biggest in the country, one that threatened to overwhelm the city.”

Johnston's statement begs one overarching question we hope the town hall can answer: In the long run, is Denver’s immigration problem solvable, and who are the ones to solve it?