Utah slams Denver for sending migrants; Denver says it starts with Texas

Denver officials said Friday the city started sending immigrants to Utah after Texas officials bused the newcomers to Denver.

Why it matters: A firestorm broke out Thursday in Utah after a report by KUTV that Denver paid for the tickets that brought immigrants to Salt Lake City in late May.

• Utah Gov. Spencer Cox on Friday lambasted Denver's actions as "completely unacceptable," writing on X that the state's "resources are completely depleted."

What they're saying: "The vast majority of newcomers arriving in Denver do so on buses chartered from Texas and had no intention of ever coming to Denver," Denver Mayor Mike Johnston's spokesperson, Jordan Fuja, told Axios.

• "That's why part of our operations include purchasing tickets for newcomers to get to their desired location."

By the numbers: Denver bought 59 tickets for immigrants to travel to SLC in the past 30 days, Denver Human Services spokesperson Jon Ewing confirmed to Axios.

• Ewing told KUTV that the city had paid for about 2,000 people's travel here since 2022.

Catch up quick: Texas officials have been busing immigrants to other cities since 2022, focusing on Denver, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

• Denver and other cities, in turn, have been sending them on to other destinations.

The intrigue: Fuja said Denver was sending people to places "where they may have support networks or job opportunities."

The other side: Salt Lake City police Chief Mike Brown wrote in a May 31 email that the recent arrivals landed in Utah "with very little information other than instructions to find a person in uniform for help," KUTV reported earlier this month.

• At that time, Brown said "unknown" nonprofits were behind the air travel.

Reality check: Denver told Axios months ago that it was paying for immigrants' transportation — and that Salt Lake City was one of their most frequent requests.

• "Denver has been incredibly transparent with all of our newcomer operations, including our onward travel efforts," Fuja told Axios on Friday.

Zoom out: States and cities have spent tens of millions of dollars in recent years shipping immigrants around the nation.

• The tactic started as what Democrats characterized as a GOP stunt before the 2022 midterm elections. Biden administration officials accused the administrations of Republican governors in Texas, Arizona and Florida of "lying" to immigrants about the opportunities and resources they'd find farther north.

Context: President Biden this month issued an executive order cutting off asylum options for most immigrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.

• Former President Trump implemented similar restrictions during his presidency, but they were struck down in court .

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