{"id":290,"date":"2025-03-05T20:08:13","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T21:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spanishliteratureintranslation.com\/?p=290"},"modified":"2025-03-11T18:29:39","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T18:29:39","slug":"editorial-congresswomans-accusation-that-denver-mayor-violated-federal-law-is-bull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/spanishliteratureintranslation.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/05\/editorial-congresswomans-accusation-that-denver-mayor-violated-federal-law-is-bull\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial: Congresswoman\u2019s accusation that Denver mayor violated federal law is \u201cbull\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a heartless show of cruelty, U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida, said Wednesday she will push for a criminal investigation into the humanitarian aid four U.S. mayors provided to refugees and other immigrants who were bussed to their cities beginning in 2022.<\/p>\n

Luna said during the congressional hearing on sanctuary cities that she wasn\u2019t trying to \u201cbully\u201d the mayors, but her actions will give every person in this country pause before they offer charity and care for the downtrodden and poor with questionable legal immigration status.<\/p>\n

The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform<\/a> called in the mayors of Denver, Boston, Chicago and New York to answer questions about sanctuary policies intended to prevent local law enforcement from participating in immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

The more than five-hour-long hearing<\/a> highlighted all the absurdities of America’s broken immigration system from threatening to prosecute mayors who kept people from freezing to death to forcing ICE agents to chase someone just released from jail around a parking lot when local officers could have just handed the individual over.<\/p>\n

Luna wants to criminalize the care Denver provided to refugees from Venezuela and immigrants from other parts of Central and South America by defining it as \u201charboring.\u201d<\/p>\n

The law \u2013 Title 8 Section 1324<\/a> \u2013 defines harboring as someone who knowingly \u201cconceals harbors or shields from detection\u201d someone who is in the U.S. in violation of immigration law.<\/p>\n

The intent of that law is not to prevent people such as Denver Mayor Mike Johnston from opening cold-weather shelters for those who arrived in the city beginning in the winter of 2022. Furthermore, Johnston\u2019s administration believed so strongly that the immigrants it assisted came here\u00a0legally after making contact with border patrol, it helped thousands of them file for asylum and get legal work permits.<\/p>\n

Did some of those who stayed in shelters cross the southern border with no intent of claiming asylum? Of course, and tragically, some of those individuals went on to commit crimes as members of the Tren de Aragua gang. But Denver did not knowingly shelter those individuals. The city merely offered life-saving space on the floors of recreation centers to anyone who was in need. Later, city officials helped people find apartments or other short-term housing solutions. The intent of finding people housing was never to shield them from deportation. The immigrant camps that were forming were unsafe and unsanitary and were harming our communities.<\/p>\n

Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, a Democrat from New Mexico, summed up Luna’s accusations well. “It’s total bull(expletive),” she said after thanking the mayors for their service.<\/p>\n

Amid all the silly theater on display<\/a> at Wednesday\u2019s congressional hearing on sanctuary cities, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, brought substance and nuance to the conversation, which was supposed to focus on municipal policies around deportation and detention.<\/p>\n

Jordan asked Denver Mayor Mike Johnston about an incident a few days ago when Denver Sheriff\u2019s deputies released Abraham Gonzalez, who had been in jail for almost a year, to immigration officials waiting in the parking lot for him. Jordan wanted to know why Denver didn\u2019t just hand the criminal \u2013 arrested in Denver for aggravated assault \u2013 directly over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, given that ICE had a lawful warrant.<\/p>\n