Denver bought one-way bus tickets for 1,900 migrants. Here’s where they were going.
The Colorado Sun
Denver spent nearly a half-million dollars last month buying one-way Greyhound bus tickets to other cities for 1,900 migrants who arrived here after crossing the U.S. southern border, according to data released Friday to The Sun by city officials.
The most popular destinations were New York and Illinois, but also Florida, Georgia and Texas.
The spending does not include tickets purchased by the city so far in January, or spending by the state, which paid for chartered buses for four or five days this month to send groups of migrants to other destinations, mainly New York City and Chicago.
Denver sent 399 migrants to Chicago and 345 to New York City in December. The city also sent 122 to Atlanta, 95 each to Miami and Orlando, and 68 to Dallas. In all for the month, the city spent $492,000 on bus tickets.
State officials have not yet responded to requests from The Sun for an accounting of the number of people taken to other cities on chartered buses.
Sending migrants to other destinations has been controversial. The mayors of New York City and Chicago last week sent a letter to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis saying they “respectfully demand that you cease and desist sending migrants” to their cities. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and New York City Mayor Eric Adams said they had received hundreds of migrants from Colorado since December.
Read the full story at ColoradoSun.com.
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