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Bennet has battled for immigration reform for years but critical issue remains deeply politicized in U.S.
Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat who’s running for Colorado governor next year, has been beating his head against the immigration reform wall for well over a decade. That isn’t going to change as he seeks the governor’s mansion in Denver, where the current occupant, term-limited Gov. Jared Polis, is being battered by the issue on his way out the door.
Polis has been accused by a whistleblower and advocacy groups of improperly compelling the state’s Labor Department to share the personal information of sponsors of unaccompanied immigrant children to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in violation of state law.
President Donald Trump’s campaign promise of mass deportations that returned him to the White House but is now proving increasingly unpopular has ensnared even blue state governors like Polis in a maelstrom of litigation and controversy. But Bennet argues his record of attempted reform makes him uniquely qualified to take on the Trump administration on the topic.
Bennet’s most prominent Democratic primary opponent in next year’s election, term-limited Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, argues he’s been far tougher on the Trump administration than Bennet in the Senate, pushing back with more than two dozen lawsuits – including Trump’s attempts to strip away birthright citizenship.
But for years, Bennet has called the nation’s immigration system “broken” and tried to pass legislation to both strengthen border security and simultaneously reform rules for granting asylum and providing work visas for critical Colorado industries.
At a recent 2026 gubernatorial campaign event, Bennet reminded the audience that when he was running for president in 2019, he was the only one of 10 Democratic primary candidates who did not raise his hand when asked if crossing the border illegally should be decriminalized.
In 2013, as a member of the Gang of Eight that included Republicans Marco Rubio and John McCain, Bennet, a Democrat, helped draft the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act.
The bill passed the Senate by a 68-32 margin, with 14 Republicans voting in favor. It included an expanded work visa program, protections for Dreamers and massive funding for border security, but the bill was blocked by Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, leaving it as a key campaign issue for Trump in his successful 2016 presidential campaign.
Dreamers are immigrants brought to the country at a very young age and granted certain protections under the administration of President Barack Obama in 2012. Bennet has been a longtime supporter of codifying DACA in law, which he’s pursued in a bipartisan fashion.
“While comprehensive immigration reform should remain a long-term solution, we also need a more immediate fix to protect Dreamers. I have long supported legislation that makes clear what we already know: supporting Dreamers boosts our economy, strengthens our national security, and aligns with our values,” Bennet said during the first Trump administration in 2017.
Still, congressional fixes to the system have been elusive, primarily for political reasons.
Last year, Bennet backed a bipartisan immigration bill drafted by Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma that was deemed “a shadow” of the 2013 Gang of Eight bill but “a necessary first step” in Bennet’s eyes. Trump torpedoed the bill in order to keep the border broken and use it as a key campaign issue, enraging even fellow Republicans.
“It’s past time we came together and fixed our broken immigration system,” Bennet tweeted back in 2022, sounding a familiar refrain from throughout his 16 years in the Senate. But while the former superintendent of Denver Public Schools has long called for securing the southern border, he’s also been a voice of compassion who slammed the cruelty of the first Trump administration.
“There’s not a single person on this stage, who if we were president, would ever separate a child from their parents at the border,” Bennet said in another 2019 presidential debate. “That is what this administration has done in the American people’s name. They have turned our border into a symbol of nativist hostility. The symbol of this country before Donald Trump was president was the Statue of Liberty. That should be the symbol of the United States of America.”
Now, under Trump’s budget reconciliation bill crammed through Congress by the slimmest of margins, with no Democratic support, ICE and overall border security will see hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars with no real reforms for asylum-seekers, workers or Dreamers. And Trump’s mass deportations are targeting law-abiding people in much greater numbers than criminals.
Bennet is the frontrunner to beat Weiser in the June 2026 primary and then fend off a crowded Republican field that is extremely Trumpified in a state that has twice rejected him for president.
First appointed to the Senate in 2009 and twice reelected, Bennet is slated to serve in the upper chamber of Congress until early 2029. If he wins the governor’s race next year, he would then choose his replacement in the Senate. But first he has to win the Democratic primary.
Asked for some of his positions on immigration in a recent interview with RealVail.com in Edwards, Weiser declined to weigh in on the Polis lawsuit.
“A complicated situation here, because there’s a current case going on right now that I’m not representing the governor in, so I’m going to leave my comments there,” Weiser said. “The other complicated situation is I’ve announced I’m investigating the Mesa County sheriff for cooperation with ICE that would violate the state law and that investigation is ongoing.”
Weiser said the governor’s office is a great place to lead on federal immigration enforcement and other policy areas where Washington is wreaking havoc for Colorado lawmakers upholding the values of Colorado voters.
“What governors can do, and what I would do, is lead with moral clarity, which is there are certain principles we believe in,” Weiser said. “We’re addressing climate change here in Colorado. We believe in diversity, equity, and inclusion. We believe in a legal, fair immigration system. And so, whatever we can do to stand on our principles and defend them, we should do as a state. And we need to work with other states to try to get towards the day when we’re going to have sanity again in our national politics and all do our part.”
David O. Williams
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