Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D) was recently blindsided by a caravan full of illegal aliens dropped in his backyard, courtesy of his own fellow Democrat freshman governor, Michele Lujan Grisham of New Mexico.
The caravan, which included 55 aliens from Central America’s violent Northern Triangle, was organized and paid for by Gov. Lujan Grisham’s office using taxpayer funds from her state’s Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (which is supposed to help pay for natural disasters). The move was authorized by Grisham in response to the ongoing crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Shockingly, Gov. Lujan Grisham apparently didn’t even bother to tell Gov. Polis or anyone else in Colorado’s state government about her drop-off operation until after the caravan arrived at a local non-profit in Denver (which is a sanctuary city). She claimed that the reason she didn’t notify Gov. Polis was that the decision was made after-hours and that notice was not necessary because the transfer wasn’t an “official” state operation.
However, Gov. Lujan Grisham’s actions don’t appear to align with her statements. She actually went around Gov. Polis and informed Denver Mayor Michael Hancock (D) about the caravan a full day before she authorized it. Adding fuel to the fire, the mayor also chose to keep Gov. Polis in the dark.
In addition to not informing Gov. Polis about the caravan, Mayor Hancock used the drop-off operation as an opportunity to politicize the immigration issue, promising to take in even more caravans from distressed states. “Denver will always be a welcoming place for people seeking refuge,” Hancock said. “I am proud of our community for proactively stepping in to provide support in uniting these individuals with their family and friends. They deserve our compassion, not condemnation.”
Gov. Polis doesn’t seem to have a problem with New Mexico violating Colorado’s state lines or with his own local jurisdictions keeping him out of the loop. He just shrugged his shoulders at the problem, doubled down on his support for illegal aliens, and tried to pin the blame on President Trump.
“The governor believes our immigrant community enriches the culture of our state,” a spokesperson for Gov. Polis wrote in a statement.
“This is another example of just how broken our country’s immigration system is and how desperately we need reform and leadership from the Trump administration on this issue,” he continued.
The New Mexico caravan of aliens entering Colorado is only the beginning. Polis is now reportedly working with Lujan Grisham to bring hundreds more illegal aliens to Colorado each week. He also approved a sanctuary law on May 28 that will act as a magnet for more illegal immigration.
But Polis’s actions may backfire on him. At least three communities in Arizona and New Mexico have already declared states of emergency in response to the border crisis, while several others have refused to take in illegal aliens, calling the influx “irresponsible” and “burdensome.”
Las Cruces, which is only a hundred miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border, is already beyond its capacity to take in more illegal aliens after absorbing more than 6,000 in the past two months alone, representing an unplanned 6% increase in its population. Shockingly, this is only a small fraction of the 150,000 migrants estimated to have been released since December and dispersed around the country.
Governor Lujan Grisham clearly can no longer support all of the illegal aliens pouring into her state so she’s resorted to exporting them to New Mexico’s neighbors. That should put up a huge red flag for Gov. Polis. Instead of pandering to the open-borders lobby, he should do the right thing: put his state’s citizens first, reject any more of Lujan Grisham’s drop-and-run operation immediately and do whatever he can close the state’s borders to illegal immigration. Otherwise, he could easily find Colorado facing the same problems as New Mexico.