Mayday. Illegal immigrants are flooding Colorado.

By the middle of 2023, we hope people of all political persuasions can praise President Joe Biden, Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, all members of our congressional delegation and most of their colleagues from other states.

Though it seems a stretch, the United States needs Biden to succeed where others have failed. It is not about him or his party. It is about the future of our country.

Barring World War III, Biden’s best chance at a legacy of greatness involves fixing America’s immigration crisis. This generations-long problem has manifested in human suffering on both sides of the border and in major cities across the country.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock declared a state of emergency last week in response to a surge of immigrants who had recently arrived. This likely marks the beginning of an immigration wave that will affect all of Colorado.

“Let me be frank: This influx of migrants…” Hancock said, has “put an immense strain on city recourses to the level where they’re on the verge of reaching a breaking point… What I don’t want to see is a local humanitarian crisis of unsheltered migrants on our hands because of a lack of resources.”

Do not let this crisis go to waste.

In this moment, Republicans and Democrats must get over themselves. Stop messaging for emotion and political gain and begin acting for results. If they do so in earnest, they could make their country stronger than ever.

Our country has become dangerously dependent on China – a hostile communist slave state – for everything from rubber ducks to space robotics. Our reliance became alarmingly obvious when Americans needed pandemic masks from China and could not get them.

We depend on China for nearly all products, even those invented in the United States. CBS’ 60 Minutes recently exposed how China uses Chinese-based social media to negatively influence American children.

“The U.S. has lost its industrial commons, the collective R&D, engineering, and manufacturing capabilities that sustain innovation in physical products,” explains “Invent Here, Manufacture There,” an academic publication. “Outsourcing production over multiple decades has left the country without the means or ability to innovate, let alone produce, the next generation of high-technology products. The country has lost suppliers, skilled trades, and the product and process design and engineering knowledge that can only be built and renewed through hands-on production.”

It jeopardizes our national security and stability. Reversing this trend seems daunting during an inflation-inducing labor shortage that only increases dependence on foreign production. Fortunately, we are blessed with millions of Latin Americans desperate to live here and help us resolve the problem.

Restoring American strength requires immediate immigration reform with a few key features:

? Secure the borders and allow law-abiding, reputable immigrants in and screen out known criminals or habitual adult dependents unwilling to work.

? Fund social services agencies to assist immigrants to learn English and find gainful employment.

? Restore cooperation among local, state and federal law enforcement to ensure deportation of illegal immigrants convicted of felonies.

? Financially incentivize American businesses to train and hire immigrants to produce goods, services and commodities otherwise outsourced to foreign countries.

? Establish citizenship opportunities linked to successful military service, private-sector employment, education and abidance of tax laws.

For this to occur, celebrity politicians on the left and right should work together and carry the banner of immigration reform. Washington must make triumph of tribulation, resolving a decades-long dilemma.

“We have got to figure out a way to get past this logjam and toward a solution where we honor our heritage as a nation of immigrants, we secure the benefits to our economy of a working immigration system, we comply with the rule of law, and we give the American people confidence that our border is secure. None of that is an unreasonable expectation.”

So said Colorado’s Sen. Bennet in May. It is hard for people of virtue to disagree with the senator’s vision – one shared by politicians on both sides of the aisle. We no longer have the option of ignoring immigration chaos, which burdens Americans and immigrants alike.

Mayday, we have a crisis. Let’s harness the wave to improve our country’s security, economy and culture.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board