Colorado — 8th District

U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans’ more nuanced position on immigration compared to the Trump administration’s sweeping approach to removing those who are in the country illegally will become all the more critical for the freshman congressman as he attempts to retain his seat in November.

In a poll released this week from the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, voters from both parties in the Republican congressman’s 8th Congressional District overwhelmingly favor a lighter touch to dealing with those in the country illegally than the raids and mass roundups that the president has used in his second term.

Colorado’s 8th District, which takes in parts of Weld, Larimer and Adams counties north of Denver, has the state’s greatest concentration of Latinos among the state’s eight congressional districts. Both Evans, and his Democratic opponent, state Rep. Manny Rutinel, are Latino.

“There is tremendous common ground to build on to create legislative proposals (on immigration),” said Steven Kull, director of the Program for Public Consultation, which conducted the poll. “There is an overarching sense that action (on immigration) must be taken.”

The survey, which Kull addressed for reporters on Wednesday in an online press conference, found voters on the right and left largely agree on a number of immigrant-related questions both nationally and across several dozen battleground House districts, whether it was creating pathways to citizenship for children brought to the United States illegally or requiring employers to verify a worker’s immigration status before hiring them.

Democrats are intent on pinning some of the uglier sides of illegal immigration enforcement under Trump to Republican incumbents in hopes of taking control of the closely divided chamber in January. Rutinel has made criticism of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s sometimes harsh enforcement tactics a central theme of his campaign.

Evans has tried to create daylight between himself and the administration on the issue, highlighting his decision last year to join five other congressional Republicans in penning a letter to ICE leadership about its enforcement strategies, and whether the agency was prioritizing the deportation of criminals.

Erin Covey, the U.S. House editor for the Cook Political Report, said getting out from under Trump’s shadow will be a tall order for Evans. The 8th District, she said, ranks second in the nation in Latino population in a battleground district currently led by a Republican.

Cook rates the race for Colorado’s 8th as a toss-up.

“I think Trump is an anchor on Evans in a way he isn’t on other Republicans in other competitive districts,” she said. “Latino voters are going to be a crucial part of either candidate’s fortunes.”

Specifically in the 8th Congressional District, 66% of Republican leaning voters and 87% of Democratic leaning voters favor a long-term visa for immigrants who have been in the country for a while and who have committed no crime.

An even higher share of Republican voters — 77% — feel that children brought to the United States illegally as children should be provided a path to citizenship, provided they have not committed a significant crime and are employed, in college or serving in the military. Democrats registered an 88% approval of that question, according to the poll.

On the dual question of whether employers should be required to use E-Verify to ensure workers are in the country legally and whether more work visas should be issued, provided there is a demand for workers, Democrats and Republicans in the 8th District responded overwhelmingly in the affirmative: 87% for Democrats and 85% for Republicans.

A majority of voters in both parties, according to the poll results, said more judges should be hired to adjudicate asylum cases. Sixty-six percent of Republicans were in favor while 83% of Democrats said yes.

The one question on which 8th District Republicans lined up nearly perfectly with the Trump administration on is the need to deport those in the country illegally who had committed a crime. Ninety-eight percent of GOP-affiliated voters support that policy while 74% of Democrats in the district do.

The University of Maryland survey came out just days after a Colorado Latino Policy Agenda poll revealed that 66% of Latino voters in the state said they feel the country is on the wrong track as their frustrations about the cost of living — which ranked higher than any other issue, including immigration — had gone unaddressed and, for many, had worsened.

For Evans, the dissatisfaction among Latino voters could prove fatal. Only 34% of voting Latinos in his district regarded him favorably, while 42% viewed him unfavorably, according to the poll, which was conducted between July 1 and Aug. 11.