A job fair hosted by Welcome US brought hundreds of job-seeking immigrants to Aurora Community College to compete for offers from 22 different employers.
sentinel file photo
Aurora | Immigration—who comes to this country, how they get there, and what that means for the country’s identity—has long been a top concern for many voters. . Our ongoing Voice of the Voter survey shows that this trend remains true among large groups of Coloradans, especially those who identify as conservatives. The surge in immigration numbers in recent years has brought this to the forefront of the national conversation with unprecedented urgency.
This is part of the 2024 Voter Voices project, a statewide collaboration of newspapers, radio, television and digital media across the state.
The Sentinel and other media outlets have spent months asking readers, viewers, and listeners to dictate the direction of the media’s election coverage. This time, we will focus on immigration, which is our biggest concern.
Political rhetoric tends to place immigrants into a single bucket: illegal immigrants. In reality, foreign-born residents of states such as Colorado span a variety of situations and legal statuses. These include naturalized citizens and lawful permanent residents (green card holders), as well as those allowed to live and work in the United States for the time being through Temporary Protected Status and the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Includes people. Others arrive in the United States as refugees or come here to seek asylum, fleeing war, violence, and oppression. All of these groups are in the country legally or have some protection from deportation. Only naturalized citizens can vote.
Emily Rodriguez (left) and Ivanni Herrera are interviewed at Aurora Park on Friday, May 18, 2024 in Aurora, Colorado. The women spoke about their lives navigating the city’s immigration crisis. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)
In Colorado, the total number of foreign-born residents is just under 10% of the state’s roughly 6 million residents, or about 565,000 people, according to 2023 census data. Nearly half were naturalized citizens.
About one in five Aurora residents, or about 90,000 people, were born outside the United States.
But it’s unclear how many foreign-born illegal aliens are here state-wide. Depending on the source, the number is estimated to be around 150,000.
And most of this data predates the recent arrival of tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers, primarily from Venezuela. At one point last year, Denver leaders estimated that the city had more new immigrants per capita than any other cross-border community in the country. And even though the pace of immigration slows dramatically in 2024, the city still provided assistance to 42,392 new immigrants at a cost of more than $72 million, according to its own calculations.
Coloradans who responded to the Voter Voices survey expressed a variety of opinions about immigration, as diverse as the immigrants who live here. Some want mass deportations and border closures. Some want to give legal status to DACA recipients and spouses of undocumented American citizens. Some want bipartisan immigration reform that would strengthen the border while providing a path to citizenship for those already in the country.
If immigration is your biggest concern, this is where your vote will have the most impact, no matter where the politics are.
FILE – Phil, wearing a T-shirt with a photo of former President Donald Trump running for re-election, holds a placard during a “Reclaim Our Borders” rally in Quemado, Texas, on February 3, 2024. Mr. Caddy. President Trump has pushed anti-immigrant sentiment to the center stage of American politics. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
presidential election
Immigration has been a flashpoint throughout the presidential race, with candidates from the two major parties offering sharply different visions of how to use presidential power.
Former President Donald Trump has promised to oversee the “largest mass deportation” in U.S. history, saying it would begin in Aurora and Springfield, Ohio. Trump dubbed his campaign promise “Operation Aurora” at a rally in Aurora last week.
To do that, the Republican presidential candidate said he would call up the National Guard and use the Hostile Alien Act to immediately remove people from the country.
Trump also promised to restore policies from his first administration, including denying visas to people from certain countries, halting refugee admissions and building a wall on the southern border. He will push for an end to birthright citizenship for children born to illegal parents in the United States. And it would end the Humanitarian Parole Program, which has allowed people to temporarily live and work in the United States.
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, has focused more on policies that specifically affect new arrivals at the border and has said less about those already in the country.
She has campaigned tirelessly for support for a bipartisan border deal that stalled in Congress earlier this year. That would increase funding for border security and detention facilities, raise standards for asylum and accelerate deportations of people whose claims are denied. The package would create 250,000 new visa slots for immigrants coming for work or family.
As for whether Harris’ campaign still supports the proposals she launched during her 2019 presidential bid to grant citizenship to Dreamers and protect millions of other undocumented immigrants from deportation. Not made clear.
Jason Crowe John Fabricatore
parliamentary elections
Fundamentally, immigration policy in this country is set at the federal level through laws passed by Congress and orders issued by the president.
In Aurora, the 6th Congressional District race is being contested between incumbent Democrat Jason Crow and Republican challenger John Fabricatore.
Click here for Sentinel coverage of that race, including Q&A from candidates.
Congress has been deadlocked on this issue for nearly 40 years. The last reform, passed in 1986 during the Reagan administration, outlawed the employment of undocumented workers and put new resources into immigration enforcement, providing legal protection to millions of people already living in the country. was given a position.
Since then, many bipartisan reform efforts have failed. Most recently, a Senate agreement earlier this year to tighten border security and reduce new asylum claims collapsed over opposition from House Republicans.
Colorado’s elected representatives to Congress will weigh in on this decades-old debate. In recent years, most immigration negotiations have taken place in the Senate, but the House has a key say in whether proposals become law.
state legislative elections
Colorado lawmakers have no power to do anything about the legal status of people in the state illegally, but the laws they enact can have a measurable impact on the lives of residents here.
For monitoring coverage of local state House and Senate district elections, click here
Over the past decade under Democratic administrations, the state began allowing people without legal status to apply for driver’s licenses and pay in-state tuition at public universities. Colorado requires health insurance companies that offer exchange programs to make their plans available to all people, regardless of immigration status. Starting next year, the state will begin covering undocumented pregnant women and their infants with Medicaid. The state also launched the Office of New Americans to help new immigrants receive assistance and integrate into their communities.
Colorado also restricts local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement in various ways. Such policies have led to accusations that Colorado is a “sanctuary state,” although there is no universally agreed definition of that term.
Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) speaks before Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center on Friday, October 11, 2024 in Aurora, Colorado. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
local horse racing
The arrival of tens of thousands of new immigrants over the past two years has put the spotlight on cities as the front lines of welcoming or rejecting them.
At the same time that Denver was cutting some services to cover the cost of sheltering asylum seekers, other communities in Colorado passed resolutions declaring themselves no longer sanctuary cities. Many cities have made it clear that they will not provide any formal assistance to new arrivals.
Most recently, Aurora has received national attention, primarily by Republican politicians and conservative media, with claims that Venezuelan gang members are terrorizing entire apartment complexes and nearby residents.
Click here for complete coverage of the Venezuelan immigration debate in Aurora
But local law enforcement says their concerns are far more limited. And residents of those apartments told journalists that the aging of the apartments and lack of response from the landlords were major concerns.
Regarding local policy, elected officials also have the power to decide whether public officials in their offices may communicate with or cooperate with immigration authorities.
There are no Aurora City races on the ballot, but there are a handful of Adams County and Arapahoe County Commissioner races. Click here for coverage.
