How your vote can impact immigration in Colorado

DENVER — Immigration — who comes to the country, how they come here and what it means for the nation’s identity — has long been a top concern for many voters. Our ongoing Voter Voices research shows that this continues to be the case among large swaths of Coloradans, and especially among self-described conservatives. The surge in arrivals in recent years has pushed the issue to the forefront of national conversations in a new and urgent way.

Political rhetoric tends to lump immigrants into one bucket – undocumented immigrants. In fact foreign-born residents in Colorado and elsewhere cover a variety of situations and legal statuses. These include naturalized citizens and lawful permanent residents (green card holders), as well as people who can temporarily live and work in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status or the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. There are also people fleeing war, violence and oppression who came to the United States as refugees or seek asylum here. All of these groups are in the country legally or are protected from deportation. Only naturalized citizens can vote among them.

in Colorado, US Census Survey 2023 data puts the total number of foreign-born residents at just under 10% of the state’s nearly 6 million residents, or approximately 565,000 people. Nearly half were naturalized citizens.

However, it is unclear how many foreign-born residents are here illegally. Estimates give the number around 150,000, depending on the source.

Most of this data predates the recent arrival of tens of thousands of immigrants and asylum seekers, mostly from Venezuela. At one point last year, Denver leaders estimated that the city looked promising more news per capita than any other non-border community in the country. And although the pace of arrivals has slowed down dramatically in 2024, at the beginning of July, the city – according to its own calculations – provided assistance to 42,392 new immigrants at a cost of over $72 million.

Coloradans who responded to the Voter Voices survey expressed a variety of opinions on immigration as wide as the diversity of immigrants living here. Some want mass deportations and a closed border. Some want to give legal status to DACA recipients and undocumented spouses of American citizens. Some want bipartisan immigration reform that strengthens the border while providing those already here a path to citizenship

If immigration is most important to you – regardless of where you are in politics – this is where your vote will have the greatest impact.

Presidential race

Former President Donald Trump pledged to oversee the “largest mass deportation” in U.S. history and said it would begin in Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio. To do this, the Republican presidential candidate announced that he would call in the National Guard and use the so-called Alien Enemies Act summary expulsion of people from the country.

Trump also promised to revive his first administration’s policies, which included denying visas to people from certain countries, ending refugee admissions and building a southern border wall.

He would push for an end to birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents. It would also end humanitarian parole programs that allowed people to temporarily live and work in the United States.

For her part, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris focused more on policies that would particularly impact new arrivals at the border and said less about those already in the country.

She campaigned vigorously in her support for bilateral border agreement that stalled in Congress earlier this year. It would increase funding for border guards and detention centers, raise asylum standards and speed up the expulsion of people whose applications are rejected. The package would also provide a quarter of a million new visa slots for immigrants arriving looking for work or family.

Harris’ campaign has not revealed whether it continues to support her the proposals she presented during his 2019 presidential campaign to grant citizenship to Dreamers and protect millions of other undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Congressional races

Generally, the country’s immigration policy is set at the federal level through laws passed by Congress and executive orders issued by the president.

But Congress has been stuck on this issue for almost 40 years. Recent reforms, enacted in 1986 under Reagan, banned the hiring of undocumented workers, put new resources into immigration enforcement and granted legal status to millions of people already living in the country.

Since then, numerous bipartisan reform efforts have failed. Most recently, a Senate deal from earlier this year to strengthen border enforcement and reduce the number of new asylum applications collapsed they oppose Republicans in the House of Representatives.

The members Colorado elects to Congress will join this decades-old debate. Although most immigration negotiations have taken place in the Senate in recent years, the House has a critical say in whether any proposal can ever become law.

State legislative races

Although Colorado lawmakers do not have the authority to do anything about the legal status of undocumented people in the state, the laws they pass can have a tangible impact on the lives residents lead here.

Local racing

The arrival of tens of thousands of new immigrants over the past two years has shone a spotlight on the cities that are on the front lines of welcoming – or rejecting – them.

Same time as Denver cutting some services to cover the costs of sheltering asylum seekers, other communities in Colorado have passed resolutions pledging not be sanctuary cities. Many cities have made it clear that they will not offer any formal assistance to new arrivals.

Recently, Aurora has been in the national spotlight due to claims made primarily by Republican politicians and conservative media that Members of a Venezuelan gang They terrorize residents of entire blocks and housing estates.

But local law enforcement says the concerns are much more limited. And the inhabitants of these apartments tell the journalists their greatest concern is the poor condition of their apartments and the lack of response from the owner.

When it comes to local politics, elected officials also have some power to dictate whether government workers in their offices communicate or cooperate with immigration enforcement authorities.

Voting measures

In Denver, Question 2T would eliminate citizenship requirements for Denver police officers and firefighters.