Venezuelans in Aurora face challenges in school and dealing with Trump-led conspiracies

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. She is attending school in a city Trump has said is overrun by migrants When Aurora’s mayor spread unfounded claims of Venezuelan gangs taking over an apartment complex there, former president and current GOP candidate Donald Trump magnified the claims at his campaign rallies, calling Aurora a “war zone.” Immigrants are “poisoning” schools in Aurora and elsewhere with disease, he has said. One thing has seemed obvious to Alisson’s mother, Maria Angel Torres, 43, as she moves around Aurora and nearby Denver looking for work or running errands: While some organizations and churches are eager to help, some people are deeply afraid of her and her family, The fear first became apparent on a routine trip to the grocery store. The district’s central office recommended a strategy called “translanguaging.” That means using Spanish at times to help students make meaning of the English lessons and conversations happening around them. “That’s not one of the words I wrote down, but good word.” For the letter F, another boy says “flor,” as in Spanish for flower.