Although Lakewood is not a “sanctuary” jurisdiction, the council believes it can piggyback on Jefferson County’s sanctuary status. What Jeffco will do, if anything, is uncertain, as are the council’s final plans, but some residents fear they look covetously at the county’s 21 closed elementary schools, akin to actions of other jurisdictions.

Americans are horrified by the nation’s illegal immigration crisis; it is their No. 1 issue, reports a new public opinion poll, edging out inflation. Once a concern for Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico residents, it is now a national problem. After all, the sight at the border of multitudes of single, military-aged men from scores of countries with potentially incompatible civilizations, cultures or causes is at once stupefying and instructive. Because most are headed our way, we all live in border states.

Unvetted, unvaccinated and uneducated, they are unprepared for life in America, even those Biden’s Border Patrol ushers in and to whom it provides monies, cell phones, and transport deep in country with court dates years in the future. One can only imagine the condition of the millions of “getaways” who arrive by authority of those who today control our southern border: the criminal cartels, and with them drugs, fentanyl, and trafficked women and children, in what Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. calls a “humanitarian crisis of unimaginable proportions.”

Things worsen when they reach their destinations, as seen for months on the news or online. Once big city mayors danced jigs when courts let “sanctuary” designation bar local law enforcement from notifying federal authorities of illegal aliens in custody to prevent deportation but ensure future felonies, including murder. Today, they complain about the exorbitant cost of housing, feeding, and policing the waves of illegal aliens swarming into their cities. Those who suffer most, however, are not the mayors, who are just begging for federal dollars, but hapless residents, rich and poor, black and white. Hotels, recreational centers, and airports are commandeered for illegal aliens, trashing neighborhoods, educational opportunities, and travelers’ safety, health and happiness. In New York City, everyone is livid, from Lady Gaga’s father on the Upper West Side to Representative Ocasio- Cortez’s Brooklyn constituents. It is no different in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Detroit, or Chicago.

Then, there is the crime. Once, crimes by illegal immigrants who should have been but were not deported after their second, fifth, or 10th illegal reentry was almost a cliché, but still tragic and horrifying. Now, with what Gov. Greg Gianforte says are 10 million illegal aliens (“10x the population of Montana”) since Biden took office, their crimes are an epidemic, not just in major cities but far beyond.

Coloradans watch in horror as that fate befalls Denver, perhaps worse given that 36,000 illegal immigrants arrived last year, which, says Mayor Mike Johnston, is more per capita than any other interior U.S. city. Until recently, hundreds camped in an illegal tent city, but now live in apartments or group housing. Denver will spend $180 million, 10% of its annual budget, giving illegal immigrants housing, food, and other services, but its funds may not suffice to prevent collapse of Denver Health, where 8,000 illegal aliens had 20,000 free hospital visits at a cost of $136 million.

Still, Denver remains proud of its “sanctuary city” status — despite how it got a Denver man killed in 2017 — and draws those arriving illegally. So worrisome is that designation and the “significant public health risk” it poses of increased crime and disease that Denver’s southern neighbor, Douglas County, expressly affirmed it is not a sanctuary jurisdiction.

Not every Colorado authority is watching as closely or is as horrified as Douglas County, however.

The Lakewood City Council recently voted unanimously to “help with Denver migrants,” including by signing a “good neighbor” agreement. Lakewood, the biggest city in Jefferson County and Colorado’s fifth largest, covers 26,000 acres where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains. Although Lakewood is not a “sanctuary” jurisdiction, the council believes it can piggyback on Jefferson County’s sanctuary status. What Jeffco will do, if anything, is uncertain, as are the council’s final plans, but some residents fear they look covetously at the county’s 21 closed elementary schools, akin to actions of other jurisdictions.

Discussing its proposal in early January to take in Denver’s migrants, with further action set for Feb. 12, the council concluded that a “majority of Lakewood residents” support helping the MileHigh City mitigate its self-inflicted crisis. Councilor Sophia Mayott-Guerrero bragged, “[P]rogress is possible now in a way that it wasn’t even three years ago.”

Lakewood residents, aware of the impacts of the illegal immigration invasion on fellow Americans, may have a thing or two to say to the council next month. They may be asking how rewarding those illegally in this country to the detriment of, increased cost to, heightened aggravation of, and personal risk to its citizens may be called “progress.”