Prescient reporting on migrants in Colorado town gets ahead of Trump’s debate rhetoric

By Bianca Vázquez Toness

With vivid detail and plenty of nuance, Bianca Vázquez Toness delivered a narrative on the migrant experience in Aurora, Colorado — before former President Donald Trump name-dropped the town at the debate.

Early in 2024, Toness set out to show how one community was responding to an influx of migrants. She settled on Aurora, Colorado. She was drawn to its proximity to Denver, a top destination for migrants; its existing Spanish-speaking population; the massive influx of migrants in its schools; and ongoing political tension there.

As she built relationships and earned trust, she met homeless migrant families sleeping in tents with their children — including multiple pregnant parents. (Other stories are coming soon on the challenges migrant women face in finding work that’s not sex-related, and on the school community’s acceptance — or lack thereof — of migrant kids.)

Through the vivid detail that is Toness’ signature, she provided a raw, yet nuanced portrait of life as a migrant family in Aurora — and the struggle to catch a break in that community. And she did it well before national competitors got the idea.

About a week before the story published, former President Donald Trump started talking about Aurora. The town, he said, was being taken over by Venezuelans. He claimed a gang had shut down an apartment complex — a claim local officials said wasn’t true.

Knowing Trump might make this claim at the debate, Toness’ editors were ready, optimizing the headline, and URL so the story would rank if someone was searching for news about Aurora migrants.

In the first few moments of the debate, that decision paid off. “You look at Aurora in Colorado,” Trump said. “They are taking over the towns. They’re taking over buildings. They’re going in violently.”

At that time, the story was the top search result for “Aurora Colorado migrants.” It received an instant boost in traffic, and AP seized an opportunity to provide nuanced, factual, human-centered reporting to an audience that wanted to know more.

Toness was the first national journalist to focus on Aurora, and she’s still the only one to do it in an in-depth, inclusive, character-driven way. The piece was featured on Google News and received 74% of its traffic from search.

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