A group of migrants in Denver is refusing to leave their encampment and move to city-funded shelters unless the city’s mayor heeds their requests for more support for their family and friends who have laid claim to the tents. 

A city department, Denver Human Services, has been lobbying to move the migrants from an encampment near train tracks and under a bridge and into indoor shelters funded by the city. Those shelters have benefits like three meals a day, and will get migrants off the streets, city officials say. 

In response, a group of migrants have demanded a host of benefits be provided to migrants at the encampment. If those are fulfilled, members of the group say, they will voluntarily leave behind the encampment and move to the city-funded shelters. 

The list of 13 demands, as reported by FOX31, include allowing migrants to “cook their own food with fresh, culturally appropriate ingredients provided by the City instead of premade meals…” They also are seeking help with employment, free legal support for their immigration cases, and assurances that families will not be separated or subject to abuse by city staff.

“We try to compromise. We try to figure something out,” Jon Ewing of Denver Human Services tells the local Fox affiliate. “You know, at the end of the day, what we do not want is families on the streets of Denver.”

Similar demands were made last week by migrants camping out next to a children’s playground at Seattle. A “Migrant Rally for Housing” called upon the city to provide resources such as tents, tarps, and toilet paper, as well as shelter for the hundreds of migrants who have lost city-provided lodging. Four nonprofits in King County received $2 million last month to fund food, support, and legal resources to migrants in the area.