While conceding that federal resources are insufficient in helping Denver deal with America’s illegal immigration crisis, a Biden administration official and the city’s mayor agreed that the Democrats’ preferred solution is still the best course of action.

That solution is grating more work permits for immigrants who illegally crossed the border. 

Regarding resources provided to Denver, “in reality, it’s not enough,” White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Director Tom Perez told The Denver Gazette on Thursday. He joined Mayor Mike Johnston at the Mullen Home, one of Denver’s six shelters currently housing immigrants.

“I want to be crystal clear that we’re fighting for more resources,” Perez said, emphasizing that providing work permits in Denver is a high priority.

Denver’s best case scenario, Perez said, is “to get people to work and that’s what Denver is doing really well.”

Denver has assisted 1,400 immigrants in applying for work permits since February, according to the mayor’s office.

Denver has “welcomed” nearly 40,000 immigrants over the past 15 months. Officials decided early in the crisis that the city would assume the responsibility to temporarily house, feed and transport immigrants to their desired destinations.

That decision has cost $61 million – and counting – and, despite state and federal grants, Denver taxpayers have assumed the bulk of these costs.

During Perez’s visit, one immigrant said he aspires to be a welder; another wants to join law enforcement. They also want to support their families, they said. 

Johnston said what the immigrants’ stories show is “the clear difference between when someone has a path to work authorization, and what happens when they don’t.”

The mayor added, “Things that can be done on the executive side with executive action on work authorization always helps.”

Johnston and Perez’s emphasis on work permits is not surprising. While both sides agree that America’s immigration system is “broken” and cite the fiscal burden on taxpayers, Democrats, broadly speaking, often focus on what to do with the millions of immigrants who are already in the country illegally, such as by offering them a path to legalization, while Republicans insist that border security, including erecting border walls and deporting immigrants in the country illegally, is paramount. 

Republicans and Democrats have tried time and again to “fix” the border crisis, but they have perennially failed to agree on a comprehensive solution, and neither Republican nor Democratic occupants of the White House have been able to stop the flow of immigrants crossing the border, though Donald Trump’s presidency pushed for tougher policies.    

The mayor brought Perez to the immigrant shelter because “it’s for us to show what is working at sites like this, and to show what more federal help can do,” Johnston told The Denver Gazette.

Perez told immigrants the country needs “comprehensive immigration reform,” and that, from Biden’s perspective, it is “not about ‘whether it helps me,’ it’s whether it helps the American people, whether it helps folks like yourself.”

Biden’s administration “dramatically” lowered the amount of time it takes to receive work authorization, according to Perez.

The crisis has put such fiscal strain on Denver that the city imposed cuts to services to its residents in order find the money to help the immigrants. 

Originally, Johnston anticipated the city would spend $180 million to feed, house, and transport immigrants this year. The recent drop in immigrant occupancy rates prompted the city to close four shelters, which means Denver is now projected to spend $120 million. The maximum stay in immigrant shelters is 42 days.

At one point in January, more than 5,200 immigrants lived in city shelters. As of Wednesday, that number is down to 970, according to Denver’s immigration count dashboard.

To date, the city has received $5.1 million from the state and federal government. Officials are optimistic the city will get $12.2 million in additional federal reimbursements.

Perez blamed “far right” Republicans, saying they pose the biggest “obstacle” in providing immigration assistance. 

“We had a bipartisan solution, a proposal in the Senate about six, eight weeks ago, and worked for months on it,” he said. “We heard Republicans say this is a good bill … it was a good compromise and it failed.”

Republicans, on the other hand, blame the crisis on the Biden administration. U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, for example, earlier said the border “isn’t secure.”

“Healthcare, transportation, and housing are not free in Colorado – unless you’re an immigrant,” Buck once said on X, the social media platform. “Taxpaying Coloradans cannot continue to shoulder the costs of Biden’s border crisis while the tax burden and cost of living in America continues to skyrocket.”