Denver’s far-left mayor has walked back his threat to use his city’s police department to stop federal immigration law enforcement.
As RedState previously reported, Mayor Mike Johnston told a local news outlet that there would be a “Tiananmen Square” moment if the incoming Trump administration moved into the city to deport illegal immigrants. He even went so far as to say he’d use Denver PD to set up checkpoints at “the county line,” something I’m sure not too many officers were keen on being a part of.
READ: Denver Mayor Threatens ‘Tiananmen Square Moment’ if Trump Deports Illegal Immigrants
“More than us having DPD stationed at the county line to keep them out, you would have 50,000 Denverites there,” Johnston said. “It’s like the Tiananmen Square moment with the rose and the gun, right?” You’d have every one of those Highland moms who came out for the migrants. And you do not want to mess with them.”
Notably, after those statements, new border czar Tom Homan didn’t hold back, noting that Johnston would be arrested if he broke the law to interfere with federal authorities.
SEE: Tom Homan Sends CNN’s Kasie Hunt Right Over the Edge With Deportation Remarks
HOMAN: He’s willing to go to jail. I’m willing to put him in jail.
It seems that Johnston got the message because he’s now singing a different tune. In a more recent interview, he had this to say.
Now that Tom Homan has threatened to throw Democrat Denver Mayor Mike Johnston in prison, he says he ”regrets” making tough guy comments about having his police force stand against federal forces to stop mass deportations
“I certainly did not mean to stoke fear on either side of… pic.twitter.com/tB2yfn8csM
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) November 29, 2024
REPORTER: It sounds like you’re walking back the comments from a couple days ago saying that you would be willing to send Denver police officers. Do you regret making those comments and now getting questions like this?
JOHNSTON: Yeah.
REPORTER: Me asking you about that, and I’m sure Denver police officers are now going home to their families and saying, “Hey, I hear the mayor is telling you that you might be deployed to face off against federal forces.” Do you regret making those comments?
JOHNSTON: Yeah. What I wanted people to understand was the scale of what could be coming if we take the president at his word, which is I don’t think anyone envisioned U.S. military troops being deployed to American streets to gather up women and children.
He keeps backtracking, but I want to note the false framing being presented by Johnston. While Trump has put the use of military troops deployed under a state of emergency to help with immigration enforcement on the table, he has not definitively said that will happen. Furthermore, the idea that it would be “women and children” gathered up is emotional manipulation that ignores two things.
For one, men between the ages of 18 and 39 make up a whopping 35 percent of illegal immigrants. Secondly, the majority of illegal immigrants who enter the United States are male. Couple that with the fact that the Trump administration will not be able to deport everyone, and it’s obvious they will be focusing on those who have committed crimes within the interior (of which the vast majority are working-age men) and not randomly gathering up “women and children.” In other words, Johnston’s misdirection is no different than pro-abortion fanatics who constantly cite “rape and incest” when almost all abortions do not include those things.
Continuing with the mayor’s comments, he then goes further, outright saying he’d take back what he originally said about Tiananmen Square.
JOHNSTON: If that happens, I think it’ll be a much more dramatic scene than people anticpated. That’s what I was trying to establish. Would I have taken it back if I could? Yes. I probably wouldn’t have used that image because that’s an image I hope we can avoid. What I was trying to say is this an outcome I hope we can avoid in this country. I think none of us want that.
There is no North High School grad who signed up to be an Army Ranger who wants to come back to his home town and round up his former high school students. No one wants to do that. So I think our purpose was to make the case that’s what we want to avoid, but I certainly did not meant to stoke fear on either side of the line.
Here’s the biggest thing that Johnston and every other left-wing politician should realize. The best way to avoid the scenes he’s describing is to cooperate with federal authorities. If there’s a manpower shortage because ICE agents aren’t being given the information they need or illegal immigrants are being purposely released from jails, then there is a chance the military will be used. If everyone works together (or at least doesn’t obstruct), then the process can be far more orderly and less tense.
It’s up to Johnston and the rest of the Democratic Party whether they want to stand in the way. If they do, then all bets are off, and the chaos will be their fault.
