Especially since no one has yet offered a solid definition of a "sanctuary" city.
But House rules offered no sanctuary from questions about it, either. Wu, with ashes on her forehead and an infant in an anteroom, won top marks; Adams earned a well-deserved spanking from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
And Denver's mayor? Here are six takeaways from Johnston's appearance — in a suit, not his trademark Wrangler jacket — at that hearing.
Johnston Came Prepared
And at $1,000 an hour — under a contract of up to $2 million signed with a powerhouse law firm — he should have been."I want to tell you Denver's story," Johnston said at the start, and he stuck with that story through the hours ahead. He talked about how the influx of migration had started before he was mayor, when ten to twenty buses a day would come up from Texas, dropping off migrants, sometimes in 10-degree weather, and the city had to get them to safety. "As the mayor, I have to help everyone in the city," he noted.
Before he finished his story, Johnston recited some Scripture, recounted how a Denver Police officer, a native of Mexico, died on the job working for the country he loved, and pointed out that over eighteen months, Denver saw 42,000 migrants arrive, more than any other city per capita. Even so, everyone was welcome, he said, and it's not Denver's job to ask where they're from.
"If we want to tell the story, we must tell the full story," Johnston concluded, explaining how when Denver encountered a problem, the city had to solve it. And then he threw the ball back to Congress: "It seems only fair to ask that the body charged to solve this national problem do the same."
Representative Lauren Boebert Grilled Better at Shooters
An actual member of the committee, Boebert was the first Coloradan to get a crack at Johnston. She presented no new material but, as predicted, did wave around the "Newcomers Playbook" the city had prepared last year, advising other jurisdictions how to deal with an influx of migrants. She noted that while he managed to create that guide, in 600 days in office Johnston had not found time to demand the repeal of Colorado laws that prohibited honoring ICE detainers."We are not unable to cooperate with ICE right now," Johnston responded.
Perhaps while puzzling out that response, Boebert went over her allotted time. But she did still submit a handful of local newspaper stories and the Playbook into the record. And within an hour, she'd sent out a fundraising pitch that was a lot more coherent than her congressional questioning:
"I just finished putting the mayors of sanctuary cities—including Denver’s mayor—ON BLAST. I asked a simple question: Will you join me in demanding the Colorado Governor and State Legislature fix their dangerous sanctuary state policies?His answer? NO! These radical mayors are more interested in protecting illegal immigrants than standing up for American citizens. They are ignoring the crisis and putting YOUR safety at risk. Enough is enough!"
Beware, Stories with Surprise Twists
Who is Abraham Gonzales, asked Ohio Representative Jim Jordan. Turns out he's a Tren de Aragua gang member who'd been in Denver custody on charges of aggravated assault, vehicular theft and menacing for almost a year, then was released on February 28...with short notice to ICE. Although six ICE officers were waiting for Gonzales in the parking lot, he managed to attack one (and even bit him, according to later testimony).So, why didn't Denver hold Gonzales in jail until ICE showed up, Jordan wondered? And why release him in a parking lot?
Johnston noted that six ICE agents had been on hand, and that out of 1,226 documented times when the city released a prisoner to ICE (that number would be repeated a lot), this was the first time he'd heard of any problem.
Jordan was doing some counting of his own. In remarks released before the hearing, Johnston had used a variation on "safe, safer and safety" thirteen times, he said, adding, "It was not safer for the ICE agents."
Other Coloradans Came Ready to Pile On
Gabe Evans, the new representative from CD-8, had requested a chance to ask questions, as had Colorado's other Republican reps...but they didn't appear until the final hour. "I'm a Colorado native, grew up around the Denver area," he said, before trotting out his other credentials: He's Latino, served in the National Guard, and was a police officer for ten years. "I've seen first-hand how public safety is plummeting," he said, before rattling off a lot of damning statistics."You may have some bad facts," Johnston responded.
But Evans did get in one fresh jab: According to a training bulletin, the Denver Police Department is prohibited from asking for national original/citizen status, and those two items are requested on the FBI fingerprint card. Asked by Evans, but not answered: "Will you allow the DPD to fill out all fields on the FBI card?"
Being a Talk-Radio Host Pays Off
Heads were nodding near the end of the hearing when Representative Jeff Crank, who took over for Doug Lamborne in CD-5, used his radio voice to wake up the crowd, even if he didn't have any new material. He boomed about Denver's ordinance "that prohibits city and county employees from asking" about a person's immigrant status, repeated the story about Gonzales "assaulting and biting" an officer, and then asked Johnston another yes or no question: "Would you feel safe if you were alone in a parking lot with a TdA member?"The delivery was more impressive than the content. But by now, the crowd was getting tired.
Save Some Fresh Questions for the End
Jeff Hurd, who replaced Lauren Boebert in CD-3, batted cleanup, and actually offered a few interesting queries that didn't do damage to Denver's mayor, but did show that this congressman is capable of original thought. "Does Denver have a contingency plan if another wave comes?" Hurd asked.Johnston replied that the city had to realign its policies after no aid came from Congress, focusing on helping migrants get jobs. If "this body" could focus on accelerating migrant access to work, he added, the city would be fine.
Absent that, Hurd wondered, "Are you concerned that Denver could be reaching a breaking point?"
With the city's revised focus and the number of migrants dropping off drastically since June, Johnston said (conveniently choosing a time before Trump's election), the city had reduced spending on migrant services by 90 percent. It would be okay...pending more unusual fed actions.
And then Hurd gave Johnston a chance to bring his story full circle, asking if he knew whether migrants had moved into southern and western Colorado from Denver. "We don't track anyone's origin," Johnston answered. And that included people born in the United States.
Meanwhile, Back in Colorado
But it isn't hard to track where the silliest responses to the day's hearing are coming from. Douglas County, Colorado, for example, where the commissioners — who'd already been lauded for filing a lawsuit by Boebert, while she also spanked Johnston for covering his "ass" with a Biden lawyer — decided to weigh in with rhetoric that put Marjorie Taylor Greene to shame. A sampling:“Move over Joseph Stalin! Mayor Johnston rewrites history in DC. Trying to convince Congress he was an innocent victim in the illegal immigration crisis, and not a willing perpetrator, luring thousands of tropical immigrants to a Denver winter to advance his political agenda,” said Commissioner George Teal. “We can’t forget that when President Trump announced his plans, Mayor Johnston’s knee jerk reaction was to mobilize the Denver police in armed resistance to our elected President.”
Hope Douglas County didn't pay any pricey lawyers for that one.
What's Next?
No one showed up to arrest Johnston — who said back in January that he'd be willing to go to jail for the city's actions regarding ICE — but more than one rep suggested that was still possible, and none of these mayors are out of the woods yet. Comer said he'd be accepting questions and additional materials for the next five days; some lawmakers called for ongoing Department of Justice investigations. And the feds could still cut off funding to whatever they deem "sanctuary" jurisdictions.
That ongoing $2 million Denver legal contract could come in handy. This city still has a story to tell.