Former President Donald Trump invited himself to Aurora to demonize immigrants and continue what he does best — divide us.
President Trump’s lies about Aurora have already been debunked over and over and over again. Yet, he persists in telling them in the hope that his dark and fearful version of our country will win him another presidential election.
Aurora is Colorado’s most diverse city, home to many immigrants and non-immigrants. Its schools pulse with the promise of American pluralism and democracy. Its broad diversity of small businesses and restaurants embodies the dynamism of American capitalism.
In Aurora, we see the reason people want to come to America and the way that immigrants, in turn, drive our economy and enliven our culture. Over the last decades, politics has prevented our country from restoring an immigration system that honors our best traditions. Our next president must work with Congress to reestablish a system of immigration that is consistent with the rule of law, worthy of our history as a nation of immigrants, and drives broad-based economic growth.
But Trump’s contempt for immigrants is so visceral and complete that he cannot possibly deliver that outcome — he has lost sight of even the economic benefits of immigration, much less its cultural significance.
A decade ago, I was part of the Gang of Eight that wrote the last comprehensive immigration bill to pass the Senate. It had a tough but fair pathway to citizenship, a massive overhaul of our visa system, and $46 billion for border security. It provided the Dreamers, finally, a real pathway to the American Dream, and it contained more than $40 billion of state-of-the-art technology to allow us to see every inch of the border — far more money than President Trump ever spent on the wall-Mexico-was-never-going-to-pay-for.
That bill passed the Senate with 68 votes, but Tea Party Republicans in the House of Representatives killed it.
Since then, Americans have been subjected to an endless carousel of politicians using our broken immigration system to bludgeon the other side — most recently, President Trump, himself, torpedoed a bipartisan bill to address our border.
In the time since the Gang of Eight passed its bill, life in Latin America and the Caribbean has deteriorated. Democracies have crumbled; economies have crashed. And cartels and criminal organizations have grown in power, perfecting their smuggling operations, and creating a crisis at our border.
All the while, China has rushed to fill the leadership void in the Western Hemisphere with a surge of trade, investment, and technology. China is South America’s top trading partner and Central America’s second. In the last quarter century, trade between China and Latin America has grown almost 4,000% — and could double in the next decade.
China is not only creating economic dependencies and fueling corruption in the region, but also accessing strategic sectors like critical minerals and energy, establishing dangerous military ties, and promoting authoritarian agendas. Taken together, China’s expanded footprint in the region aggravates the drivers of migration to the U.S.
President Trump’s empty rhetoric and dog whistles will never counter China’s growing influence or meaningfully stem migration to our southern border. Instead, we need to grow our economy in partnership with the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean.
For years, I have worked on a bipartisan, bicameral bill – the Americas Act – that will establish and invest in a permanent trade partnership with Western Hemisphere democracies to bring jobs, industries, and critical supply chains back to our hemisphere from China and elsewhere, and reduce corruption.
This is common sense: if we help create better economic opportunities and governance in our hemisphere, people are less likely to endanger themselves and their families to come to the United States.
Together, the Gang of Eight bill and the Americas Act are our best means to fix our broken immigration system and address the underlying causes of migration.
President Trump’s decision to descend on Aurora and play immigration politics is reason enough he should never be president again. Fortunately, Vice President Kamala Harris understands that we do not have to choose between our heritage as a nation of immigrants and our commitment to the rule of law.
This November, we can vote to end the partisan warfare over immigration that has hurt our economy, our communities, and our standing in the world. Then, we can secure our border and create a pathway to citizenship for those inspired to invest in the American Dream.
Michael Bennet is a U.S. Senator from Colorado. He is a former superintendent of Denver Public Schools.
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