Heading for the Hot Seat: Mr. Johnston Goes to Washington

An hour into his address before a joint session of Congress last night, President Donald Trump finally got to immigration — the hot topic that had brought him to Colorado for a massive campaign rally in October.  "Over the past four years, 21 million people poured into the United States," he said. "We are getting them out and getting them out fast."

And then it came, the obligatory reference to Venezuelan gangs taking over "entire towns like Aurora, Colorado...beautiful towns destroyed."

Still, the sun came up over a definitely undestroyed Aurora at 6:26 this morning, an hour and 34 minutes before Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and the mayors of three other cities — New York, Chicago and Boston — have a date in Congress with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, an appearance being billed as "A Hearing With Sanctuary City Mayors."

They received their summons in January from Representative James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who chairs the committee and warned that "sanctuary jurisdictions and their misguided and obstructionist policies hinder the ability of federal law enforcement officers to effectuate safe arrests and remove dangerous criminals from American communities, making Americans less safe."

But Johnston really invited himself shortly after the November election, during a Denverite interview with former Westworder Kyle Harris, when he said that if Trump made good on his threat to launch the mass deportation he'd dubbed Operation Aurora, "50,000 Denverites" would be waiting. “It’s like the Tiananmen Square moment with the rose and the gun, right? You’d have every one of those Highland moms who came out for the migrants. And you do not want to mess with them,” Johnston said.

But new immigration czar Tom Homan was more than willing to mess with Johnston, saying he'd arrest Denver's mayor if he interfered with immigration authorities and violated federal law.

First, though, Johnston will have a chance to explain to Congress how the city handled the 43,000 immigrants who'd flooded Denver since December 2022, most coming up from Texas, and why Denver is not a "sanctuary jurisdiction."

And Johnson isn't going in unarmed: The city signed a contract worth up to $2 million with a powerful law firm to position Denver for the ongoing fight with the feds over immigration, as well as to prep the mayor for this appearance.

“I’m going to make the remarkable stance of assuming best of intent,” Johnston told City Cast last week. “They want to make this a divisive, dramatic, catastrophic issue on immigration, and it’s not. It doesn’t have to be ideological.”

But it will be. Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert is on the committee; she took Johnston to task last year after he released a "Newcomers Playbook" to other cities grappling with an influx of migrants. New CD-8 Republican Gabe Evans has angled for his five minutes, too. And then there will be all the other representatives looking for some time in the limelight. "Game on," promised a recent Oversight committee X post.

While Johnston went to Washington, D.C., last year to talk about immigration, and has been back there since Monday to get ready for this morning, a few reminders might not hurt. And they're free!

1) Although it will be tempting to put the blame on Congress's inaction on immigration, do so carefully. After all, Trump set the groundwork last night with this: "The media and our friends in the Democratic Party said we needed legislation...all we really needed was a new president."

2) But do go ahead and point a finger at Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who bused many of those migrants here.

3) Have another deflecting Beetlejuice joke ready for Boebert, a recent migrant herself to CD-4, where she had better chances of re-election.

4) Otherwise, do not shoot from the lip in that folksy Colorado way. It tends to land you in the hot seat (for evidence, refer back to that Denverite interview, as well as your "20 percent restaurant fee" reference on the recent City Cast podcast). Instead, firmly lay out the city's stance.

5) Wear a suit, and leave the folksy Colorado Wrangler jacket at the hotel.

6) Above all, do not behave like Cousin Greg in Succession:

The hearing begins at 8 a.m.; watch for our takeaways here.