Denver Mayor Mike Johnston joined the leaders of New York City and Chicago Wednesday in lambasting Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for continuing to send busloads of migrants from the southern border to their cities.

The mayors said the chartered busing strategy was inhumane, reckless and inefficient, and in a joint media call they detailed new time- and location-based restrictions they will place on the buses’ arrivals in their cities.

Johnston, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also called on the federal government to declare a state of emergency. That could allow the government to grant financial support and enact a national resettlement strategy for asylum seekers, many of whom are fleeing violence and desperation in Venezuela.

“We, at this point now, have had more migrant arrivals to our city than any city in America per capita,” Johnston said. “And that is not because there is a thoughtful or coordinated strategy to entry. It is because we are the first big city north of El Paso — and the cheapest bus ticket and the shortest trip for the (Texas) governor and others who are trying to find a place to send people.”

Denver hit a new peak on Christmas Eve, when a city dashboard reported 4,268 migrants staying in shelters in the city more than a month into the latest surge. That was up from 1,880 in mid-November. As of Wednesday afternoon, the dashboard showed 4,063 migrants in shelters.

The first of several waves of migrants coming through Denver began arriving late last year, and since then the city says it has served 34,461 people at a cost of more than $36 million.

Some migrants have been living outside in recent weeks after reaching the city’s time limits for shelters. Denver is working to close one of its largest migrant camps near Zuni Street and Speer Boulevard by Jan. 3. Johnston spokeswoman Jordan Fuja said work was underway to connect people with housing or transportation to other places, and the city plans to open a congregate shelter in the next few days.

In Texas, Abbott has said his busing strategy is about both relieving pressure on border cities as well as an attempt to make a political statement about the country’s immigration policies by sending migrants to “self-declared sanctuary cities,” as he put it in May. Last week, Abbott sent the first plane ferrying migrants to Chicago.

Denver also has been a destination or pass-through city for asylum seekers traveling on their own.

On Wednesday, New York City’s Adams said Abbott needs “to stop the games and use of migrants as political pawns,” with Johnson of Chicago adding that the governor was “circumventing law in order to prove a political point.”

In a statement issued by the Texas governor’s office on Thursday, spokesperson Renae Eze accused the Democratic mayors of hypocrisy. Abbott is a Republican.

“They are now going to extreme lengths to avoid fulfilling their self-declared sanctuary city promises, yet they remain silent as President Biden transports migrants all around the country and oftentimes in the cover of night,” Eze said. “Instead of attacking Texas’ efforts to provide relief to our overwhelmed border communities, these Democrat mayors should call on their party leader to finally do his job and secure the border — something he continues refusing to do.”

Denver’s mayor noted that the federal government has previously coordinated refugee resettlement, including for Ukrainian and Afghan refugees. Unlike with the southern border’s migrant crisis, the federal government has provided significant support and resources as well as work authorizations for those refugees.

The mayors said they were responding to a chaotic system as they go. They plan new restrictions on bus arrivals that vary by city.

In Denver, Johnston said migrant buses must arrive between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays at approved locations, so that they aren’t coming in the middle of the night or dropping off families with children in freezing temperatures. He planned to discuss other potential regulations with the City Council.

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