美国国家公共电台 NPR--Denver aims to recover from a surge of migrants entering the U.S. from Mexico

Denver aims to recover from a surge of migrants entering the U.S. from Mexico

Transcript¹

More than 4,000 migrants have arrived in Denver over the last month, prompting the city to open temporary shelters. Now the mayor wants to close those shelters, leaving migrants with few options.

DWANE BROWN, HOST:

More than 4,000 migrants who recently crossed into the U.S. from Mexico have arrived in Denver over the last month, prompting the city to declare a state of emergency. It converted two city recreation centers into temporary shelters, and Denver's mayor now wants to close those shelters, but it's not clear where the migrants can go. Colorado Public Radio's Kevin Beaty has more.

(CROSSTALK)

KEVIN BEATY, BYLINE²: Denver city employee Lisa Gibbs is in charge of the shelter in west Denver. It's busy.

LISA GIBBS: We'll get walk-ups all day. We are close to capacity today.

BEATY: Denver started converting rec centers and another city building to temporary spaces for migrants when Denver's regular homeless shelters became inundated³ in December. Gibbs and her colleagues stepped away from the regular city jobs and have been pulling 12-hour shifts. People like Kevin, who's from Venezuela, are appreciative⁴. He declined to say his last name, worrying identifying himself could compromise his asylum⁵ claim.

KEVIN: (Speaking Spanish).

BEATY: "I feel safe, thanks to the support of the people who are having us here," he says. "I arrived here without clothes, with nothing, and here they've given me clothes, food, where to stay when I go to my destination. I'm barely 22 years old, and I want to get my papers out and do things perfectly⁶, if God allows me." City employees are really proud to give people a soft landing here, but it's cost Denver more than $1 million so far. Mayor Michael Hancock has been pleading with nonprofit and faith organizations to help. He expects migrants will keep coming for months. Last week, the state tried to solve Denver's problem by chartering buses to take migrants where they want to go out of state. Selena Reyes has been helping⁷ book those trips.

SELENA REYES: I would say that the majority of our guests are traveling outside of Denver - New York, Chicago, Florida - as of right now.

BEATY: Officials won't say how many buses they chartered, but on Saturday, New York Mayor Eric Adams and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot sent a joint⁸ letter respectfully demanding they stop. Jared Polis, Colorado's Democratic governor, stopped chartering buses in response, but said, quote, "we will not prevent anyone who wants to leave from going to their preferred destination." And migrants are still being offered tickets out of state on regular commercial buses. Denver's mayor, Michael Hancock, says he gets it.

MICHAEL HANCOCK: I probably would respond exactly how Mayor Lightfoot responded. We're just not equipped for this sort of thing, and it's a result of the inactivity and lack of leadership by the federal government.

BEATY: Hancock says Denver's rec centers need to go back to being rec centers and not migrant shelters. He's hopeful the new policy President Biden announced last week will help. It aims to reduce migrant numbers by quickly expelling migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti who enter the U.S. via Mexico.

HANCOCK: The administration is showing leadership and recognizing the undue⁹ burden on cities and states with the surge that has occurred here.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Trabajo es? Work.

BEATY: Back in the shelter, a city employee helps people with some basic English. Many people here made a dangerous trek¹⁰ from Venezuela to escape violence and poverty. They're trying to find a better life. Amelia Iraheta has heard a lot of their stories.

AMELIA IRAHETA: People are not just making this decision because it seems like something to do, right? It's a life-or-death situation for a lot of people.

BEATY: She said word has spread that Denver is a welcoming place to land, even if just for a little while.

IRAHETA: We've seen a lot of people here who are telling us things like, oh, I texted my cousin, or I'm part of a WhatsApp group that told me to come here. And the word is getting out that Denver seems to be the place that people are now coming.

BEATY: Migrant arrivals in the city have dropped by about half from 200 or more a day. But the city is still sheltering more than a thousand a night, and no one knows how long the surge that started last month will continue. Denver is negotiating with the local Catholic archdiocese to shelter migrants so its rec centers can go back to hosting workouts and basketball games.

For NPR News, I'm Kevin Beaty in Denver.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 inundated   

v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付

参考例句：

• We have been inundated with offers of help. 主动援助多得使我们应接不暇。
• We have been inundated with every bit of information imaginable. 凡是想得到的各种各样的信息潮水般地向我们涌来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 appreciative   

adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的

参考例句：

• She was deeply appreciative of your help.她对你的帮助深表感激。
• We are very appreciative of their support in this respect.我们十分感谢他们在这方面的支持。

5 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

6 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

9 undue   

adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的

参考例句：

• Don't treat the matter with undue haste.不要过急地处理此事。
• It would be wise not to give undue importance to his criticisms.最好不要过分看重他的批评。

10 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。