Updated at 10:40 a.m. on Thursday, July 31, 2025.
Colorado’s only swing congressional seat is also the district in the state with the largest Latino population, at nearly 40 percent. That means the Trump administration’s handling of immigration could have a big influence on whether freshman Republican Gabe Evans holds on to his seat in next year’s midterms
Evans’ relationship to the issue is complicated. He has touted his own family’s immigration story as the ‘right’ way to come to the country, because his grandfather gained his citizenship after serving in WWII. But recently revealed documents show he crossed the border from Mexico illegally as a child, and may have had a criminal record.
His first bill in Congress was an effort to roll back three Colorado laws meant to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation. But more recently, he's has also offered a more moderate vision. Evans has signed on to the Dignity Act, which would create a pathway for some undocumented immigrants to get legal status to work in the country, but not citizenship.
“You have critical, critical industries like agriculture, where 42% of the ag labor force doesn't have legal documentation. We have to have some sort of way to protect American farmers, to be able to protect folks in my district,” he told CPR News in an interview in July shortly after the bill was announced.
Immigration — and the Trump administration’s unprecedented effort to swiftly arrest and deport people — is something voters in Evans’ district are thinking about.
“I guess it's been a little extra lately. I don't mind it on the level of criminals but it doesn't seem that's necessarily the case,” said Javi Gonzalez, a 32-year-old truck driver from Greeley. He leans conservative and voted for Trump. Despite his misgivings, he’s not against the immigration crackdown and largely supports it.
Gonzalez’s wife, Anjelyka Flores, takes a different view. She didn’t vote for Trump and doesn’t like how his administration is handling immigration.
“Obviously, crack down on the gun criminals, but it doesn't seem like they're focusing on what they said they would focus on. They're going into universities and I don't think that's right,” she said.
Many of the voters CPR spoke with in Greeley — whether or not they vote Republican — made a similar distinction: mostly they’re okay with stepped up deportation of people who commit crimes, but want the government to treat those who aren’t causing trouble differently.
Mervin Miller, 22, is a conservative Trump voter, but said he thinks it should be easier for immigrants to get citizenship. And he doesn’t like how some people cast all immigrants in a negative light.
“I've worked with Mexicans; I was a roofer. They're the nicest people on the planet. You won't meet a lot of people that are as nice as the Mexicans in general around here, right? Of course, there's the cartel and all that, but I don't think that's a reason to just say, ‘oh, we're just going to not let anybody in.’”
Miller lives in Wyoming but works as a truck driver in Weld County. He hopes to move to Colorado if he can figure out how to afford it. Like a lot of voters, cost of living is a top issue. Miller is also passionate about Second Amendment rights, and limited government intrusion into people’s lives.
“It's mainly just, are we free as a people?” Miller said of his political philosophy. “That's my main concern, whether it be liberal or conservative, right? It's the question of what are we allowed to do, according to government?”
Trump voter Julia Spruk is an independent from Greeley. She’s retired and describes herself as low-income. She’s worried about crime in her area and feels like it’s increasing exponentially. When it comes to immigration, Spruk agrees efforts to remove people should be more selective, and she wants the government to approach the issue with compassion.
“We're all living human beings,” she said. “I don't really consider myself a, quote, Christian, but I do believe in Jesus and I do believe in God. And in the Bible it says, ‘owe no man anything, except to love one another.’ And I think we're forgetting that. I think we're forgetting the love and the compassion part of the equation.”
Talking to voters makes it clear that views on immigration —and how to handle people here without legal status — are more complicated than political talking points usually capture. Even for these Trump voters, it’s not clear how their feelings about the issue may influence their votes next year.
Editor's note: This story has been update to describe immigrants without legal status.
- Rep. Gabe Evans often discusses his grandfather’s path to citizenship. Documents show he left out some details
- ‘It gives them a path’: Rep. Gabe Evans says The Dignity Act will bring reform and opportunity to immigration policies
- Colorado towns are in the dark about whether ICE will reopen private prisons in their communities
- Colorado’s Attorney General wants to know if Western Slope law enforcement agencies are working with ICE
- Rep. Crow says he was denied entry to detention facility
