Denver is about to cut hundreds of city jobs. Not because workers failed at their duties, but because city leaders mismanaged the budget and spent far more on the migrant crisis than taxpayers could afford.

Now facing a $200 million budget gap, Mayor Mike Johnston is cutting hours for some employees all the way down to zero. However, to soften the blow for those who are about to find themselves out of a job, reporters wouldn’t call it a “layoff” (local TV anchor Kyle Clark even avoided the term). Instead, they phrased it this way: City workers were told they may no longer be scheduled to come in.

Clark demonstrated the word games in his report on the matter by saying that the city “IS NOT laying off employees … but the city IS telling hourly employees they may have their hours reduced to zero.” In other words, We’re not firing you. We’re just making your paycheck disappear. A clever euphemism dressed up in bureaucratic nonsense, a.k.a. a lie.

The warning signs that this might happen were already there. During a cringeworthy press conference in 2024, Mayor Johnston openly admitted that in order to pay for the mounting migrant crisis, the city would have to cut “services to citizens.” Translation: The services Americans depend on will go dark as the budget shoves more dollars toward noncitizen newcomers.

But is this even necessary? Yes. KDVR broke the numbers: Denver is staring at a $200 million budget gap and will begin cuts — i.e., “layoffs” — on August 18. That’s a serious hole — one big enough to destroy the livelihoods of real people, and outlets across the country have been sounding alarms. Caring about others is noble, but not when it comes at the expense of the livelihoods of Americans who keep these cities and states running and make the availability of these services possible.

Every day, families’ jobs are vanishing because Democrat leaders sold a vision of “compassion,” defining it as our job to take care of anyone who comes to the U.S., regardless of how they got here. They failed to mention that they intended to put the needs of everyone else ahead of their own constituents, while still expecting us to foot the bill.

It shouldn’t need to be said, but a commonsense perspective is that “compassion and empathy” shouldn’t give anyone license to bankrupt their own citizens. It relies on very simple logic: Before we fix every problem across the board, let’s make sure we can keep our own lights on and that the needs of our own people are met. Cutting lifeguard hours to zero, furloughing public workers, and freezing hiring, all to pay for the arrival of people from other countries, particularly those who jumped the line and skipped the legal process to come here — there’s no way to call that fair.

This isn’t just a Denver problem. Across the U.S., from New York to Chicago, cities have been quietly gutting jobs and slashing services for their own citizens to pay for the costs of housing, feeding, and transporting illegal immigrants. Experts note that cities from New York, which will spend an estimated $12 billion over the next three years to shelter and feed new undocumented arrivals, to Chicago, with $361 million in migrant-related costs last year, are all grappling with budget pressure — and cutting services or raising taxes on Americans to cope.

The message is consistent: When governments prioritize noncitizens, jobs, services, and other resources are spread too thin to benefit anyone; therefore, everyone (except government officials and the wealthy elite) suffers. How did we get here? It’s not as if cities didn’t feel strapped already. A Congressional Budget Office report shows that spending on immigration enforcement and migrant services has pushed local governments across the country to their financial brink.

Meanwhile, average Americans are still trying to deal with the impact of inflation, housing costs, and wages that are struggling to keep up. Yet in some cities — ironically, those led by the most “compassionate” officials — those concerns are still being largely ignored. In fact, as we revisit the euphemistic “hours reduced to zero” conversation, the only comfort jobless community members are receiving from those in charge is a shift in verbiage, not in policy.

All the while, DHS costs, shelter, schooling, healthcare, and transport for migrants keep on keepin’ on with no threats to their services. This is not about opposing immigration. It’s about approaching things in a logical way, which includes vetting immigrants, planning for real costs, and, most importantly, keeping our communities functioning for American citizens who are the ones paying for it.

Denver showing up to pay $5 million out of public services and cutting budgets to fund migrant costs is a textbook example of willful ignorance and the absence of compassion. And with a projected $200–250 million shortfall next year, it doesn’t take an economist to see that the path forward is lined with more failure and more cuts to resources for citizens.

So, what does real compassion look like?

It’s wrapped up in rational fiscal principles. Prioritize American citizens. Then, and only then, once your own people are secure, can you genuinely help others. And not through government handouts, but through structured, value-aligned charity and effective policy. When cops, sanitation workers, and DMV staff can’t serve their own citizens because their jobs are gone, it creates problems for everyone and further disparities between those at the top and communities that Democrats claim to care so much about.

Compassion isn’t throwing your city into chaos. It involves balancing budgets, protecting the social safety net, and extending help only when your own house is in order. That’s how you ensure we can welcome newcomers — and not lose the livelihoods of the very people who make the American Dream possible for others.

Next time someone suggests conservatives are being unkind, remind them that it’s unkind to make public servants, your friends and neighbors, bear the cost of everyone else’s needs before their own.

Support restrictions and funding plans that put Americans first, then responsibly expand. Taking care of our own doesn’t make us unkind. It makes us capable of actual compassion, which is sustainable.