Trump Border Czar Says He's Willing to Put Denver Mayor in Jail Over Immigration Enforcement

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston is still mired in national controversy after an interview last week in which he said he was prepared to use the city's police force to defend against incoming president Donald Trump's federal deportation efforts.

“More than us having DPD stationed at the county line to keep them out, you would have 50,000 Denverites there,” Johnston added. “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.”

Over the weekend, Johnston walked back some of the comments he'd made to Kyle Harris, a former Westword culture editor who's now a senior staff writer at Denverite, saying he "probably wouldn't have used that image" of Tiananmen Square, and that he hopes to avoid any extreme or potentially violent standoffs with federal authorities. However, the mayor said his administration would oppose any mass federal deportation efforts against immigrants in Denver, and that he was "not afraid" to go to jail if Trump or federal law enforcement take it that far.

It didn't take long for conservative pundits and Trump's incoming cabinet members, who were already hot on Johnston for his first round of comments, to react to the mayor's follow-up interview with 9News.

Donald Trump Jr. and Elon Musk both taunted Johnston on X about his willingness to go to jail. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul claimed that Johnston could be removed from office if the mayor tried rebuffing federal immigration enforcement. And late November 25, Trump's incoming border czar, Tom Homan, jumped into the fray, saying he was "willing" to put Johnston in jail.

"But look, me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing: He's willing to go to jail. I'm willing to put him in jail because there — there's a statute. It's Title 8 United States Code 1324 (III). And what it says is it's a felony if you knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien from immigration authorities. It's also a felony to impede a federal law enforcement officer," Homan said while sitting next to Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Fox News Monday night.
According to the Denver Police Department, state laws prohibit officers from enforcing federal immigration or deportation edicts, but the DPD stops short of saying it would actively block or otherwise obstruct federal agents.

Although Johnston has backed away from claims that police officers would guard Denver from federal immigration authorities, his office has told media outlets that Trump's administration "will get no help from us" during deportation efforts.

Trump has pledged to declare illegal immigration a national emergency, even saying he'd call on the military to carry out his plan. The President-elect has also threatened to cut funding from cities that defy his orders.

Since late 2022, Denver has seen around 43,000 migrants, most of whom are coming from Venezuela, arrive via buses usually sent up from Texas. The mayor's office estimates that around half of them have remained in the Denver area. In that time, the City of Denver has spent millions on short-term shelters and work programs for migrants who have stayed in the city.

But since this past summer, Aurora has become a center of immigration debate after members of its city council claimed that apartment buildings — and the city itself — were taken over by a Venezuelan gang. The Aurora Police Department has admitted that gang activity among Venezuelan immigrants in Aurora is occurring, but APD officials dispute claims that the city or entire apartment complexes have been taken over. The landlord of the apartment complexes in question has been cited for unsafe living conditions since 2020, and is currently awaiting trial for property-code violations.

At an October rally in an Aurora resort near Denver International Airport, Trump promised to begin a mass deportation project called Operation Aurora on his first day back in office. Since winning the election, Trump and his political allies have continued to say that Operation Aurora will begin in January 2025.

"We will send elite squads of ICE, Border Patrol and federal law enforcement officers to hunt down, arrest and deport every last illegal alien gang member until there is not a single one left in this country," Trump said at the rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort. "And if they come back into our country, they will be told it is an automatic ten-year sentence in jail with no possibility of parole."