Washington, D.C. — Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and Senate Finance Committee member, visited Mexico City, Mexico, and the U.S.-Mexico border last week to inform his work to fix our broken immigration system and deepen the U.S. commitment to a shared North American agenda with Mexico. 

“Throughout my conversations in Mexico City, it was clear there is enormous opportunity for the U.S. and Mexico to work together to deepen economic prosperity and promote democracy, address the root causes of migration, and stop the flow of fentanyl and guns across our borders,” said Bennet. 

“The situation at our Southwestern border and the effect it’s having on cities across the country, including Denver, is not sustainable. We have to reform our immigration system to honor our traditions as a nation of immigrants and our commitment to the rule of law.” 

During his visit to Mexico City, Mexico, Bennet met with U.S. and Mexican government officials, including the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar, former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, Senator Xóchitl Gálvez, and Mexican civil society and business leaders. 

He also traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border in Tucson and Nogales, Arizona, where he met with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, toured U.S. Border Patrol and Office of Field Operations facilities, and met with non-governmental organization leaders who care for migrants, and local government and business leaders.

In 2013, Bennet was a 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 Senate passed the legislation with overwhelming bipartisan support, but it stalled in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Bennet has long supported offering a path to citizenship for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status recipients. He has led the effort in the Senate to reform the H-2A Temporary Agricultural Workers visa program and provide farm workers and family farmers and ranchers with certainty. In December, he introduced the Affordable and Secure Food Act. 

In May, Bennet joined U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) in working on the Americas Trade and Investment Act, or Americas Act, which would create a trade partnership of Western Hemisphere countries and counter China’s growing control over global manufacturing and geopolitics by uniting democracies in the Western hemisphere.