It was refreshing to hear the mayor of Colorado’s largest city join his counterparts from Chicago and New York in placing responsibility for the nation’s ongoing border crisis where it belongs: on the Biden administration.

They didn’t put it in those words, of course, in their video news conference Wednesday. Mayors Mike Johnston of Denver, Brandon Johnson of Chicago and Eric Adams of New York are members of the same party as the president, after all, and some comity is required. Especially on such a touchy topic for Democrats.

So, they made their point in a roundabout way, heaping scorn instead on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. He’s a safe target as a Republican. His much-publicized policy of sending incoming immigrants from his state’s southern border to Denver and the other sanctuary cities has rankled the Democratic mayors. As The Gazette reported, they called Abbott’s policy “reckless and unsafe.”

But it seemed their real beef is – and should be – with how the feds have dropped the ball. Whether the mayors would admit it or not, that’s the upshot of their call for action.

The cities have been inundated with immigrants and need help fast.

“We cannot do this alone,” said Johnson. “We need more support from the federal government.”

Johnston was more to the point.

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“Denver finds itself right now at ground zero in trying to resolve and respond to the migrant crisis,” Johnston said. “We have had at this point more migrant arrivals to our city than any city in America, per capita…And that is not because there is a thoughtful or coordinated strategy to entry.”

Indeed, there is no such coherent, workable policy in force at our nation’s border. As critics have been saying all along, it is the duty of the Congress and the White House to come up with one.

As The Gazette also reported, Johnston identified three steps he said the federal government must take to intervene: make dramatic increases in the number of work authorizations for immigrants, boost funding to meet the crisis – and develop a coordinated entry plan.

All of America is waiting for the White House to assume its proper role and take the lead in laying out and implementing such a plan. Colorado is among the states, and Denver among the cities, that are most urgently in need of a new approach.

The unprecedented surge of immigrants has cost Denver taxpayers more than $36 million, according to the city. Despite state and federal grants, Denver taxpayers have shouldered most of that cost.

To be sure, Abbott has made matters worse for Colorado. His state shares a 1,254-mile border with Mexico and has borne the initial brunt of the influx of central and South American immigrants, so he has been sending them to states led by Democratic governors, including Colorado, in a program dubbed “Operation Lone Star.” It’s his way of protesting the Biden White House’s failure to address the porous border.

Texas’ approach may be unfair to Colorado and other states, but it’s hard to deny Abbott has refocused public debate on the federal government’s ultimate responsibility for the debacle.

It’s also hard to deny Denver shares some blame. Denver City Hall has unapologetically made Denver a sanctuary city for uncontrolled immigration. Successive mayors and city councils have thumbed their noses at immigration authorities and other federal agencies, refusing to cooperate with the feds on even routine criminal-justice matters involving illegal immigrants.

Policing immigration shouldn’t be left to America’s states and cities; that creates perverse incentives for them to pass the buck to other states and cities – or to declare themselves sanctuaries. Or, sometimes both; Colorado also has been sending immigrants to yet other cities.

The Biden White House must step up to the plate. Colorado’s Washington delegation should call on the president to do just that.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board