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.
