AURORA: THE STATE DIVERSITY CAPITAL
City had the largest percentage of foreign-born residents in Colorado in 2017.
In a short stretch of East Colfax Avenue, Aurora’s position as the top destination for immigrants in Colorado — a role it embraces — comes into view. Nestled at the intersection of Dallas Street and Colfax sits Panaderia el Paisa, a bakery filled with colorful, sugar-dusted pastries.
Jose Herrera, an immigrant from Mexico, has owned the business for seven years. The bakery sits near Senegalese African Hair Braiding, and across the street the window of L.A. Insurance Agency advertises “Se Habla Español.”
Bustling side streets are also filled with businesses — and places of worship. On Dayton Street, Jesucristo es Rey, a Spanish-language Evangelical church, is just down the street from Manakamana Grocery, a “Nepali and Indian Bazaar.”
Prakriti Rai, 22, whose parents own Manakamana Grocery, said Aurora has been a welcoming place for her and her family to run a business.
“(We’ve had) mostly positive experiences,” she said. “We haven’t really faced racial discrimination.”
Aurora has been a landing spot for immigrants for decades: In 2000, 16.2 percent of its residents were foreignborn, with that figure rising to about 19 percent in 2016. According to U.S. Census data from 2009, Aurora had the 16th-highest foreign-born population per capita among cities of at least 300,000 people.
And the city is embracing this diversity. Over the past three years, since unveiling its refugee and immigrant integration plan in 2015, the city has
rolled out programs in nearly every major area of public and civic life to help immigrants and refugees integrate into the city.
Ricardo Gambetta, head of Aurora’s Office of International and Immigrant Affairs, said one of the city’s most prominent initiatives has been its Natural Helpers program, formed in conjunction with the Village Exchange Center, a nonprofit serving immigrants and refugees.
“It’s an excellent way to empower the local immigrant and refugee community,” Gambetta said. “It’s a great way to develop leadership skills and train those in the immigrant community how to help others navigate the system.”
Aurora is one of four cities in the country with the Natural Helpers Program. It has trained more than 140 volunteers in various immigrant communities so they can help connect others to city resources.
Amanda Blaurock, director of the Village Exchange Center, said she believes the city’s initiatives have helped attract a large immigrant population in the area.
“They’re changing the dialogue from ‘These community members are bad’ to ‘We’re welcoming them and providing resources,’ ” Blaurock said.
The city has also worked closely with Community Enterprise Development Services over the past few years to promote immigrants’ small business endeavors and connect them with micro-loans. And it has put a special emphasis on naturalization efforts, with an annual naturalization ceremony and “citizenship corners” in its libraries to provide information about the naturalization process.
“Once you become a U.S. citizen, you have access to greater opportunity,” Gambetta said. “You have access to federal jobs, you improve your income, so we try to promote citizenship.”
But there are limits as to how far the city is willing to go. In 2017, over the objections of immigrant-rights activists, the City Council declared that Aurora would not be recognized as a sanctuary city. The city said it would not obstruct operations of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, as officials feared losing federal funds for operating as a sanctuary under the Trump administration’s definition of the term.
In terms of its integration plan, Gambetta acknowledged there is still work to do, but said he remains optimistic.
“Not everything is perfect,” he said, “but we feel we are making progress.”
Nearly one in five Aurora residents is foreign-born, with immigrants from more than 40 countries. The largest proportion of its immigrant population is from Mexico, followed by Ethiopia, El Salvador and Korea, according to city demographics.
Here, a few Aurora immigrants and residents discuss the factors that brought them to the United States and their journeys toward citizenship.