Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, welcome to Colorado — the top destination per capita for “new arrivals” crossing the U.S. border illegally and taking “free” bus rides north. Take it in, as Minnesota has no comparable challenge.

The Democratic running mate of presidential nominee Kamala Harris visits Denver on Wednesday for a fundraiser featuring Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, left-leaning Quark founder Tim Gill of the Colorado Blueprint and other leading Democrats.

Colorado politicians and donors should ask serious questions of Walz. Colorado-based journalists should avoid celebratory coverage like that of the mainstream national press pack. Walz, who let Minneapolis burn for three days after the George Floyd murder, will be in ground-central of an immigration crisis he supports.

In just two years, Texas has shipped more than 40,000 illegal crossers to Colorado — a problem Minnesota has not faced in the country’s far north. A recent study documented how the cost to metro Denver to shelter, educate and provide health care services to immigrants has reached $340 million.

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The sudden influx of destitute adults — mostly men of working age — creates demand on hospitals and various social services Coloradans struggle to afford. The immigrants — lacking money, food and shelter upon arrival — strain every public service Coloradans have invested in for generations.

Uninsured and lacking primary health providers, border crossers understandably use emergency rooms for routine health care. Denver Health, a public hospital that provides indigent care, is running at multimillion-dollar deficits. The institution’s costs for treating uninsured patients have doubled since 2020 — a cost partially driven by new demand from immigrants.

Denver’s city and county government could properly fund the hospital, and should, if it would stop spending with reckless disregard on new arrivals. The city’s sanctuary policies give Texas Gov. Greg Abbott good justification for sending busloads here, because he knows our state will care for them.

It is the most compassionate thing he can do to help border crossers desperate for resources in tiny border towns that have little to spare.

The influx includes good people, in addition to criminals their home governments gladly ship our way.

Denver’s “already here” residents get to pay for the new arrivals, and not just with crime. Because the city can’t afford anything-goes spending on immigrants and the costs of “free” health care, city leaders want sales tax increases to fund Denver Health and more “affordable housing” — each under increasing demand because of illegal immigration. For locals living paycheck to paycheck, it would be another nudge toward poverty and homelessness.

What Walz might do as vice president directly affects our state. Don’t count on him to support finishing the border wall as he works alongside longtime open-borders advocate Harris.

“I always say, let me know how high it is,” Walz said July 30, when discussing the border wall halted by President Joe Biden. “If it’s 25 feet, then I’ll invest in the 30-foot ladder factory. That’s not how you stop this.”

Walz has signed bills allowing illegal border crossers to obtain driver’s licenses. He qualified them for “free” college tuition at a cost to residents who pay taxes and tuition. He allowed illegal crossers to enroll in the state’s “free” health care system and compete with Minnesotans for care.

This is not someone concerned with the porous border, which facilitates a fentanyl influx that kills Americans at the rate of a daily jumbo-jet crash.

Walz has imposed radical and damaging left-wing agendas on Minnesota since taking office in 2019. Funded by monolithic teachers unions, Walz opposes school choice — which Polis supports. He forced Marxist curriculums — fomenting racial tension among “victims” and “oppressors” — as proficiency in reading among public school students dropped by 10%.

During the pandemic, he urged Minnesotans to report anyone having a birthday party or other small event. He wants to ban common hunting rifles and the right to carry concealed. Despite a middle-class income tax of 9.8%, Walz rushed to impose more taxes the moment Democrats took the Legislature in 2023.

With a folksy appearance, Walz — who “misspoke” when stealing combat valor — might be the most dangerous vice-presidential nominee in history, running with history’s most far-left presidential nominee.

Welcome, Gov. Walz. While here, please explain your radical views and past actions that threaten our future.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board