Meet Denver's first newcomer program director who is up to the challenge

Thousands of migrants from the southern border have arrived in Denver since December 2022, leading to the City of Denver declaring an emergency and costing the city over $60 million and counting. 

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and staff are gearing toward a more sustainable solution with the help of the city's first newcomer program director, Sarah Plastino, who comes with a decade of experience as a human rights and immigration defense lawyer. She also worked as an attorney for the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network.

In this new role, her job will be to direct the city's response to the newcomers who are arriving in Denver and manage every aspect of the response. She will also coordinate and collaborate with city departments and nonprofits who have been on the frontlines of this crisis.  

"We are in a spot right now where we are transitioning from an emergency response to affirmative long-term response, and so we are designing and will begin implementing that system in the near future, the mayor himself will make those announcements," said Plastino. "I'm not at liberty to give you more details but the guiding principles that we are using is compassion, meeting the needs of the folks and financial sustainability… because the way we've been having to do it is not financially sustainable."

Plastino talked about the fact that a large number of people arriving are not yet eligible for a work permit. Venezuelans who arrived before August 2023 have parole and so people who have parole, which is permission to enter the country legally and remain, those people are eligible for work permits immediately. Anyone who doesn't have parole is not eligible, therefore those folks would have to seek asylum and that takes a long time.

"Almost everybody who has come here is planning on seeking asylum because of the conditions that they fled in Venezuela and for asylum seekers you are not eligible for a work permit until you have filed your application and have waited six months. So we are working with the folks in that category to get asylum clinics up and running so we can start counting towards those six months where they can get the work permit," said Plastino. 

She said the city looks to host more legal clinics and work with newcomers to help them acquire a work permit. So far, the City of Denver has helped 1,400 migrants get work permits through legal clinics.