Donald Trump claims Aurora has been overrun by gun-toting migrants and is threatening to visit.
If he does visit, Trump should meet the hard-working children and adults I’ve met as a teacher of English to children and adults in Aurora for the past five years:
A mother of two from Venezuela who rises at 3 a.m. each day to go to work at a downtown Denver restaurant. Yet, every Thursday, she attends an evening class to learn English.
A 10-year-old girl from Honduras who endured the journey to the United States and eagerly attends school. Unlike other students, she pleads for more homework so she can learn English faster.
An 11-year-old boy from Mexico who quickly learns English. In a matter of weeks, he is helping other newcomers navigate the school, learn English and follow school rules. He becomes a model student whom teachers want others, including native-born Americans, to emulate.
My countless experiences reflect what research shows about immigrants.
When compared to U.S.-born residents, immigrants are less likely to commit crime, are more likely to be better educated, and are willing to fulfill critical service jobs. Rather than taking opportunities from U.S.-born Americans, immigrants are giving back to the country.
Yet Donald Trump and his supporters continue to lie about immigrants for their own political gain. The data refute those lies:
Immigrants are overwhelming the United States. It is clear that the southern border has faced crisis levels of immigrants in recent years, but perspective is needed. The percentage of immigrants in the U.S. has remained relatively flat over many decades, and has never topped the high of 14.8% in 1890.
Immigrants flooding across the border are criminals. Multiple studies show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. But immigrants are not bringing a wave of crime. In his excellent book, “A Good Provider is One Who Leaves,” Jason DeParle cites National Academy of Sciences research that shows immigrants are in fact much less likely than the native-born to commit crimes.
Immigrants are “animals” and an uneducated drain on society. The reality is that immigrants are well-educated. Among those who entered the country between 2020 and 2022, 48% held at least a bachelor’s degree, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a rate higher than that of U.S.-born adults.
Immigrants are stealing jobs. We are facing a worker shortage, and it’s only going to get worse. Without immigrants, we will not have enough workers to support our economy, let alone take care of our aging population.
Immigrants are smuggling fentanyl and other drugs across the border. Border and drug agents report migrants are not the major transporters of drugs across the border. Instead, the drugs are mostly being smuggled in vehicles passing through ports of entry. The bipartisan immigration bill sought to boost officers at ports of entry, but Trump essentially killed the measure to boost his campaign.
Immigrants don’t learn English. A Cato Institute study reports that “our analysis unambiguously shows that today’s immigrants are more likely to learn English than immigrants in the beginning of the last century.”
The data not only betray these lies but speak to the importance of immigrants for the United States.
I saw that every day in what we called The English Breakfast Club at Laredo Elementary School in Aurora.
The children were literally from all over: Venezuela, Mexico. Honduras. Peru. Colombia. Guatemala. But they all came together early in the morning with a common goal — to learn English.
At the English Breakfast Club, freshly scrubbed faces arrived more than an hour before other students, sent by parents for whom their child’s education is everything.
The willingness of the children to start their school day early was a relatively minor chore for them after a lifetime of struggle.
Most of the students had fled homes of violence or extreme poverty. Their families had traveled thousands of miles, across deserts, over mountains and through rivers.
They carried dreams that someday will benefit all of us, dreams of becoming doctors, teachers, police officers and soldiers. Dreams that will make our country better.
Michael Arrieta-Walden of Denver is a retired teacher from Aurora Public Schools and Oregon and previously was a managing editor of The Oregonian in Portland.
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