Colorado’s capital city has been serving not only as innkeeper for an unprecedented, new wave of illegal immigrants — but also as their travel agent. Among the many services the administration of Denver Mayor Mike Johnston extends to them — all on the taxpayers’ tab — are tickets to the immigrants’ next intended destination.

The complimentary travel fare no doubt is aimed, at least in part, at defusing public pushback at the other support — room, board, medical care at Denver Health and so forth — the administration has been doling out. It’s as if to say, nervously, “Don’t worry; they won’t be staying!” though many probably will.

But instead of serving as a sop to an overburdened public, the free tickets are really another slap in the face. It’s another perk taxpayers have to cover for “newcomers,” as they are now called, but aren’t eligible to use themselves.

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Policies adopted by Denver City Hall as well as by Colorado’s government have turned our entire state into a sanctuary, and a beacon, for those who are illegally in the U.S. And the public’s ire is inevitable. To date, the city has received 42,323 immigrants at a cost of more than $71 million, some of which has dinged taxpayers through cutbacks in city services.

The portion of that ad hoc budget that is paying for one-way travel to other points on the map not only represents another publicly funded expense — but also the policy’s rank hypocrisy.

The city might as well declare, “Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses — but only until we can palm them off on someone else.” They are being shipped to places that didn’t ask for them and — unlike Denver and Colorado — weren’t foolish enough to advertise themselves as sanctuaries for illegal immigration in the first place.

Elected leaders in such destinations are now justifiably upset, as a report in The Gazette reminded us this week. And it is reflecting poorly not only on Denver and its elected leadership but also on all of Colorado.

Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox tore into Johnston on social media the other day, saying it is “completely unacceptable” to bus immigrants — who crossed the U.S. border illegally and ended up in Denver — to Colorado’s neighbors.

“We recently learned that the Democrat mayor of Denver has been sending illegal immigrants to Utah without proper notification or approval,” Cox wrote Friday on X, the former Twitter. “This is completely unacceptable and follows on the failed catch-and-release policy of the Biden administration.”

Denver officials insist the policy has been ongoing and is hardly a secret, but the Utahans aren’t in the mood for excuses.

“Denver did not consult with us prior to instigating this practice,” Cox’s office stated in an email to The Gazette’s news staff. Salt Lake City and the state of Utah are unable to provide services to arriving immigrants, Cox’s office added.

One thing both states’ political leaders seem to agree on is the problem is the fault of our federal government — for failing to secure the nation’s borders — and ultimately will have to be resolved in the nation’s capital.

But Denver’s mayor as well as the state Legislature have significantly compounded Colorado’s woes. State lawmakers in 2019 enacted a law prohibiting local governments from cooperating with the federal government in immigration enforcement and prohibiting the sharing of judicial information with federal officials.

Last year, the Legislature passed a law barring local government involvement in immigration detention. Denver, meanwhile, is widely known for offering shelter, food and transportation of immigrants here illegally to their final destination.

Is it any surprise when Utah balks at Colorado’s attempts to share pain of its own making?

Denver Gazette Editorial Board