Immigration

Michael understands that our broken immigration system weakens our economy, reduces our global competitiveness, and forces millions of hardworking families to live in the shadows. His commitment is personal; his mother, Susanne Klejman Bennet, was born in Poland in 1938, smuggled out of the Warsaw ghetto as a toddler, and later escaped the Holocaust with her parents, who immigrated to New York in 1950. Drawing on this legacy, Michael is fighting for bipartisan, commonsense solutions that reflect two bedrock American values: we are a nation of immigrants and we are a nation that respects the rule of law.

Michael was part of the “Gang of Eight,” a group of bipartisan senators who worked together to write a sweeping bill to fix our broken immigration system. The group met with a diverse coalition of business, labor, farm worker, faith, and Latino leaders to write a bill that would reform an outdated visa system, guarantee important worker protections, create a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, and secure our borders. The Senate passed the bill with overwhelming bipartisan support in 2013, but the House of Representatives never took it up.

Michael has long supported offering a path to citizenship for Dreamers who were brought to the United States as children and know no other home. He cosponsored the Dream Act when he first arrived in the Senate, and when Congress failed to pass the bill, Michael urged President Obama to create the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Since President Trump wrongfully terminated the DACA program, Michael has worked in good faith with his colleagues across the aisle to find a permanent solution for Dreamers. He has offered several bipartisan proposals that include a path to citizenship for Dreamers and increased border security.

Michael is working on bipartisan legislation to reform the current agriculture workforce system– the H-2A program–and support the hardworking farmworkers and family farmers and ranchers who sustain the nation. He continues to work with Democratic and Republican colleagues to advocate for commonsense immigration reforms that support our economy, keep families together, and secure our border to combat drug, arms, and human trafficking. In addition, Michael is focused on strengthening our response to the surge in migrant arrivals, protecting immigrant children, and ensuring timely support and federal funding for communities hosting migrants, including in Colorado. 

For years, Michael worked with leaders throughout Colorado to convene and promote a civil conversation around immigration reform that could inform real and lasting reform at the federal level. The result of those conversations manifested in the Colorado Compact, a set of six principles that represent a rational and collaborative approach to immigration policy. The Compact played an instrumental role in guiding Michael during the 2013 immigration debate in Washington.

Michael was part of the “Gang of Eight,” a bipartisan group of senators that worked together to draft the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act. The bill would have invested billions of dollars to secure our border and better track who comes in and out of the country. It would have created a more efficient, sensible, and flexible visa system to encourage new workers—skilled and unskilled—to contribute to our changing 21st-century economy while safeguarding American worker protections. The bill also would have created a tough, but fair, path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants living in the shadows. On June 27, 2013, the Senate passed the legislation 68-32 with overwhelming bipartisan support. The House of Representatives never followed suit, and the legislation ultimately never became law.

Congress has failed time and again to resolve our broken immigration system because of partisan gridlock. This political reality has resulted in direct consequences for businesses, families, and communities across our country. Michael continues to work to improve our broken immigration system and fight for comprehensive immigration reform.