DENVER — The Denver Metropolis Council on Tuesday authorised a $2 million contract with a legislation agency that can characterize the town throughout a congressional inquiry into Denver’s so-called “sanctuary metropolis” standing.
In January, the Home Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee introduced an investigation into 4 “sanctuary cities”—Denver, Boston, Chicago, and New York Metropolis—and invited their mayors to testify throughout a listening to. The committee alleged that the cities “take it upon themselves to determine what legal guidelines they are going to and won’t abide by all to defend detachable aliens, particularly criminals, from federal legislation enforcement.”
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston agreed to testify earlier this month, and the listening to is scheduled for March 5.
- Watch our earlier protection within the video participant beneath
Mayor Johnson to testify earlier than Congress about Denver’s ‘sanctuary metropolis’ standing
On Tuesday, the Denver Metropolis Council employed Washington D.C.-based legislation agency Covington and Burling, LLP. The contract is for authorized providers rendered from Feb. 1 via Jan. 31, 2026.
Based on the contract, the town has agreed to pay as much as $2 million for providers. A letter from Covington and Burlington, LLP. to the town outlines the legislation agency’s “blended, all-attorney fee” of $1,000 for all companions, counsel and associates, in addition to a $595 “blended fee” for all skilled employees. The legislation agency additionally agreed to not cost the town for the primary 50 hours of associate time.
The letter states that each events “mutually agree that investigative exercise is prone to proceed following this listening to.” If that exercise leads to charges that exceed $2 million, the town should “submit a request for added funding to the Metropolis Counsel promptly with a request for an expedited approval course of.”
“The agency’s efficiency of any such extra work shall be in reliance on a good-faith expectation that any such approval shall be effected,” the letter continues.
Dana Remus will function lead lawyer within the matter, based on metropolis paperwork. Earlier than becoming a member of Covington and Burlington, she served as assistant to the president and White Home counsel for former President Joe Biden. She beforehand acted as basic counsel for the Biden-Harris presidential marketing campaign, in addition to deputy assistant to the president and deputy counsel for ethics to the Obama administration.
- Learn the total contract beneath
In a January letter to Mayor Johnston, Home Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY)—citing a Jan. 2025 New York Occasions article—outlined sanctuary jurisdictions as “states, counties or cities that put some limits on how a lot they’re prepared to cooperate with federal businesses’ efforts to deport” folks within the U.S. illegally.
The letter classifies Denver particularly as a sanctuary metropolis because of a invoice signed into Colorado legislation through the 2019 legislative session that claims to supply “clarification of the authority of prison justice officers with respect to the enforcement of sure federal civil legal guidelines.”
Denver has by no means formally known as itself a sanctuary metropolis. It was provided that title underneath President Donald Trump’s first administration.
In 2017, the primary Trump administration requested for “sanctuary cities,” together with Denver, to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its crackdown on immigration. In response, then-Mayor Michael Hancock signed an govt order that created a authorized protection fund for folks threatened with or in removing proceedings and ordered the Denver Sheriff Division, which operates the town’s jail, to not search federal funding that required the division to collect and launch details about an individual’s immigration or citizenship standing.
In that order, Hancock known as Denver a “secure and welcoming metropolis” however by no means used the phrase “sanctuary.”
Politics
Home committee launches investigation into ‘sanctuary cities,’ together with Denver
Freshman Rep. Gabe Evans, the Republican consultant of Colorado’s eighth Congressional District, was granted permission to sit down in for questioning through the listening to. Rep. Lauren Boebert, the firebrand Republican who represents Colorado’s 4th Congressional District and is a member of the Home Oversight Committee, will even get an opportunity to query Johnston.
Denver7’s Óscar Contreras contributed to this report.
Coloradans making a distinction | Denver7 featured movies
Denver7 is dedicated to creating a distinction in our group by standing up for what’s proper, listening, lending a serving to hand and following via on guarantees. See that work in motion, within the movies above.
