As local communities organize for our new neighbors we are reminded that US foreign policy destabilizing Latin American countries & leaving impact of forced migration up to local communities and state government isn’t new
AS DJEC notes in their recent conversations on supporting new migrant students we are reminded that since last January, at least 41,000 people have migrated to the Denver metro area.
Colorado isn’t new to immigrants and the impact of forced migration isn’t new to the state either. The state of Colorado was acquired through the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo1 which was the peace treaty that was the result of the 2 year war (between 1848-1850) in which the United States government got rights to nearly 950,000 square miles of Mexican (then Spain) territory, in exchange for peace. The United States government also paid Mexico $15 million for the damages they had done to property during the 2 year war – which is equivalent to $600.6 million today. In 1850 the United States completed the purchase of what we know of as the state of Colorado – by buying territory in central Colorado from the Republic of Texas. There are many generations of Coloradans who have Mexican roots and have never left the landscape of our current state because of this history alone. Later in history this ignited and inspired the state’s deep connection with the Chicano movement2 .
At the time of the treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo there were approximately 80,000 Mexican citizens that supposedly had protections under the treaty, but the United States Congress watered down the treaty to keep guaranteed property and civil rights from Mexican citizens. Thus, was the beginning of explicitly racist policies in the Southwest to keep Mexicans from having basic human rights and taking away their own ancestral lands, leaving many of them forced to migrate. The U.S. government has a history of disrupting and destabilizing countries south of the border since then3,4 – like Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Panama, and most notably and recently – Venezuela5.
Point being, U.S. foreign policy has imposed forced migration to and from Latin America since the establishment of the United States.
Fast forward 174 years later and here we are – facing an influx of migrants due to forced migration, because of an ineffective executive branch of government and dozens of sanctions that the US has put on Venezuela since the early 2000s. This has completely disrupted their economic infrastructure and contributed to the world’s largest migrant displacement in the world (1/3rd of the population has left Venezuela)6.
Sanctions the United States government has put on Venezuela since the early 2000s7 has limited the country’s ability to do international trade and make revenue on what they make 95% of their export earnings on – oil. Declines in oil, largely imposed by US sanctions, destabilized the Venezuelan economy. Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves and Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy was among the most prosperous in Latin America in 2014. That is when the United States imposed more stricter sanctions limiting the Latin American country’s international political power. Over the last four years, strict U.S. sanctions have contributed to Venezuela’s increased dependency on traditional U.S. adversaries – which is intentional by way of US foreign policy. In lue of this, one third of Venezuelans have left their country because of economic collapse.
Without addressing harmful U.S. foreign policy we can not fix our current immigration system. Because of this immigrants and migrants, both long term and newly arrived, became political footballs for democrats and republicans to use in negotiation tactics. This leaves states up to fend for their new (and old) neighbors, and depending on how conservative an area is – will depend on how new arrivals (or long term immigrants) are treated. We see this vast difference in how newly arrived migrants were treated in Carbondale, Colorado, versus Douglas County, Colorado. While our communities of immigrants seek access to basic needs to survive we are watching a trend of racist anti-immigrant ordinances pop up around the state which is destabilizing for everyone. As DJEC community members and teachers have explained – while the metro area is “well-equipped to deal with the typical inflow of migrants, this recent and rapid influx of such a significant number of migrants has required both public and private institutions to respond quickly. Some of the most immediate and urgent needs include providing newly arrived migrants with basic accommodations like housing and food.”
DJEC community conversations noted that integrating new residents into the public school system may require an active effort on the part of public officials and community liaisons. So, local & state politics are stepping in – but will it be enough?
Mayor of Denver – Mike Johnston, along with other mayors of cities that have been heavily impacted by large influx of migrants have taken multiple trips to DC to advocate for more federal aid to help with immediate needs like shelter but also for a broader reform of the immigration system. We’ve seen multiple pieces of legislation at the Colorado state Capitol this year that address the many barriers that migrant families face by multiple members of the Latino Caucus – including allocating more funds to nonprofits who serve immigrants and migrants, addressing the health care costs at county hospitals, and support in getting drivers licenses to undocumented individuals faster. Here are some of those bills and initiatives:
House Bill 24-1280 would establish a grant program for organizations that are supporting the recently-arrived population. This money would be used for housing-related services, public school placement assistance, English classes, financial orientation, immigration legal help, emergency supplies and assistance navigating the complex federal processes for immigrants to seek legal status. The fiscal note of this is $2.5 million dollars.8
A budget allocation of a one-time $24 million in funding to support schools with high enrollment of migrant populations, and the majority of the district’s contracts are with Denver Health.
SB24-182 – Immigrant Identification Document Issuance would address the barriers to accessing a diverse license for people without documentation, shortening the 12-20 month wait time. Making it easier for individuals without documentation from outside the U.S. to get a Colorado driver’s license by removing requirements that they live here two years, file a tax return and provide a tax ID or Social Security number9
Mayor Mike Johnston is now asking departments to cut their budgets in order to pay for migrant support, while also – scaling back on migrant services. Denver has spent $42 million on temporary shelters and new migrant services and has served over 41,000 migrants at this point – since the end of 2022.10
But without major federal policy changes cities are limited on how much they can help migrants and non-profit service providers are left up to creatively find ways to get funds more accessible to immigrants they service. Support for new arrivals, much like other social infrastructure, needs to be a public-private partnership if we are to increase it. While the state is limited, the non-profits that serve immigrants are already underfunded and over stretched and meeting their own goals.
Newly arrived migrants are advocating for their needs11 in Denver and have a list of 13 demands delivered directly to mayor Johnston’s desk – including the ability to cook their own food, shelter beyond 3 days, among other basic human survival needs. This group has communicated that they will stay in the outside encampments until demands are met – and only then will they move into city-funded shelters (that limit them to a strict short stay). Denver Human Services has done their best to lobby the group into shelters – met with failure. In DJEC’s latest conversations on migrant needs, many community members noted that it is critical that families feel welcomed and accepted members of the community as they navigate very complex systems like enrolling their children in public education, and navigating our immigration system, without the ability to work. Recognizing the need to allocate more resources to meet the needs of immigrants is nothing new – but our federal government makes it more challenging by never taking a proactive lens to immigration policy. Our state makes it hard as well – given that our social services in Colorado have never been properly funded in the first place12 and we are facing an insurmountable housing crisis. That is why it is vital that DJEC and others supporting migrants work directly with them to continue centralizing their needs and autonomy, but also – hold every elected official accountable to serving our communities and new neighbors. Tensions build in communities when basic needs are not met – and when communities do not have basic needs met – that is a policy choice.
Pivoting that tension towards holding politicians accountable, and contributing to mutual aid efforts is a service everyone of us in Denver can do for our new neighbors.
We have to get as creative as possible with our local and state governments, and find private-public partnerships to address the needs of not just our new neighbors – all immigrant families in our great state. This has to include more advocacy from everyone – immigrant or not, on holding politicians and the private-public sector accountable to supporting the societal infrastructures we all need to thrive. This also has to include an understanding of the history of explicitly racist policies crafted by the US government to keep certain people from accessing resources and a commitment to no longer allow this in 2024.
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1 https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-guadalupe-hidalgo#:~:text=This%20treaty%2C%20signed%20on%20February,Oklahoma%2C%20Kansas%2C%20and%20Wyoming.
2 https://www.npr.org/2011/06/30/137529484/the-chicano-movements-denver-roots-run-deep
3 https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/08/20/mapped-the-7-governments-the-u-s-has-overthrown/
4 Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 11, No. 3, Destabilization and Intervention in the Caribbean (Summer, 1984), pp. 3-14 (12 pages), Published By: Sage Publications, Inc.
5 https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10715
6 https://www.csis.org/analysis/persistence-venezuelan-migrant-and-refugee-crisis#:~:text=The%20outflow%20of%20refugees%20and,Ukrainians%20outside%20of%20their%20countries.
7 https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/sanctions-by-the-numbers-3
8 https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/HB24-1280
9 https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb24-182
10 https://app.powerbigov.us/view?r=eyJrIjoiNWQ4YjcwZDctODkwNy00YjA4LThlMTktMjM3YjU2NmIwZTRjIiwidCI6IjM5Yzg3YWIzLTY2MTItNDJjMC05NjIwLWE2OTZkMTJkZjgwMyJ9
11 https://kdvr.com/news/local/group-of-migrants-send-denver-mayor-list-of-demands/
12 https://www.stateofedcolorado.org/inadequate-funding/
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Kayla Frawley (she/her) is a single mom of a Denver Public School student and an experienced policy director that has worked on over 100 pieces of state legislation in Colorado in the last 6 years. She leads The People’s House LLC – a small firm of working parents slowly shifting our sectors to honor working parent leadership in Colorado and systems change. Join her here, or read her work here.
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