{"id":558814,"date":"2026-02-01T14:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T14:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/558814\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T14:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T14:44:10","slug":"trumps-immigration-surge-ripples-across-a-swing-house-district-in-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/558814\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s immigration surge ripples across a swing House district in Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"

GREELEY, Colo (AP) \u2014 Like many Donald Trump<\/a> voters, Miranda Niedermeier is not opposed to immigration enforcement<\/a>. She was heartened by initial moves from the Republican president in his second term that she saw as targeting immigrants who were in the United States illegally and had committed crimes.<\/p>\n

But Niedermeier, 35, has steadily become disillusioned with Trump. Never more so than in recent weeks, when federal immigration officers killed two U.S. citizens during Trump\u2019s<\/a>crackdown<\/a>in Minneapolis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning, they were getting criminals, but now they\u2019re tearing people out of immigration proceedings, looking for the tiniest traffic infraction\u201d to deport someone, said Niedermeier. She said she is horrified because the administration\u2019s approach is not Christian.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be life and death,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re not a Third World country. What the hell is going on?\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s immigration drive in Minnesota, and the deaths of Renee Good<\/a> and Alex Pretti<\/a>, has resonated across the farms, oil and gas rigs, and shopping centers of Colorado\u2019s 8th Congressional District, a swing seat stretching northeast from Denver. The monthlong turmoil in Minnesota has reinforced the political views of some in the U.S. House district while making others reconsider their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe should cool it on immigration,\u201d said Edgar Cautle, a 30-year-old Mexican American oil field worker who said he is a Trump fan but is increasingly distressed by images of immigration agents detaining children<\/a> and splitting families apart<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s making people not like him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican congressman wants ICE to focus on criminals<\/p>\n

If such sentiments hold until the fall, that could imperil<\/a> House Republicans who won their seats by narrow margins and could jeopardize the GOP\u2019s full control<\/a> of political power in Washington.<\/p>\n

Even a small shift is significant in the 8th District, where Republican Gabe Evans<\/a> was elected to Congress in 2024 by 2,449 votes out of more than 333,000 cast. His seat is one of the Democrats\u2019 top targets as they push to retake the House in November.<\/p>\n

Evans is a former police officer whose mother is Mexican American. He has urged the administration to focus on deporting criminals rather than people in the country illegally who are otherwise obeying the law \u2014 as Evans puts it, \u201cgangbangers, not grandmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview, Evans said he is worried about the assertion by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that it can search homes with just an administrative warrant<\/a> rather than one signed by a judge. He said he looks forward to questioning Department of Homeland Security officials during an upcoming House hearing.<\/p>\n

Still, Evans blamed Democrats for the Minneapolis standoff and the broader impression that ICE is out of control.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne side wants to fan the flames and equivocate in this space because they want an issue to run on in November,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He noted that ICE has stepped lightly in his district, with narrowly tailored operations aimed at criminals rather than the local industries that rely on immigrant workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have big meatpacking plants, we have big dairies, we have places where, if ICE was trying to meet a quota, you would see ICE going to them,\u201d Evans said.<\/p>\n

Voters conflicted over approach to immigration enforcement<\/p>\n

Some 4 of 10 voters in Evans\u2019 district are Hispanic. In more than two dozen interviews across the district, every voter who identified as Hispanic spoke of being offended by Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown. Many \u2014 U.S. citizens all \u2014 feared for their own safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if, just because of my last name or how I look, they might go after me,\u201d said Jennifer Hernandez, 30, as she entered a Walmart in the town of Brighton.<\/p>\n

Plenty of other voters supported the Minnesota operation, even after the shootings of Good and Pretti.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got to clean up the immigrants, definitely,\u201d said Herb Smith, a 61-year-old generator installer and Trump voter.<\/p>\n

Smith, who is Black, said he once lived in Minneapolis and left because of the Somali immigrants<\/a> who have drawn Trump\u2019s ire: \u201cTrump\u2019s right, these people are poisoning our people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dominic Morrison, 39, a telecommunications technician, said he does not like to see people lose their lives, but feels enforcing immigration laws is necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know everybody wants a better life and better situation, but if I went somewhere else without permission they wouldn\u2019t take nicely to it,\u201d Morrison said.<\/p>\n

Racial profiling has some \u2018walking on eggshells\u2019<\/p>\n

Democrats in the district said they are enraged by the enforcement surge and blame Evans along with Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s said nothing against it,\u201d said Jim Getman, a retired electrical technician who volunteered for Democrats in 2024. \u201cHe\u2019s always supported Trump in everything he does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Hernandez, 27, pays far less attention to politics. But the forklift operator and his family members \u2014 all citizens or legal residents \u2014 are fearful they could be swept up by immigration officers who are racially profiling people<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re walking on eggshells right now,\u201d Hernandez said as he filled up a water jug at a tap outside a Mexican supermarket in Commerce City, a heavily immigrant city at the southern end of the 8th District.<\/p>\n

Hernandez said it has gotten so bad that he and his four siblings, all citizens born in the United States have considered moving to property his family owns in Mexico for their safety. He did not vote in 2024 and has never cast a ballot before, like many he knows.<\/p>\n

He intends to change that this year, and he thinks he is not the only one.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore people are like, oh … we\u2019ve got to vote,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GREELEY, Colo (AP) \u2014 Like many Donald Trump voters, Miranda Niedermeier is not opposed to immigration enforcement. She…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":558815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[7373,238640,13672,4439,244210,69,244211,90,9564,57,2055,244209,409,227482,244214,244213,74652,17635,3663,231219,244212,3669,50,80,225146,235115,89,2065,61,322,67,132,68,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-558814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-2026-elections","10":"tag-alex-pretti","11":"tag-co-state-wire","12":"tag-colorado","13":"tag-dominic-morrison","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-edgar-cautle","16":"tag-elections","17":"tag-gabe-evans","18":"tag-general-news","19":"tag-government-and-politics","20":"tag-herb-smith","21":"tag-immigration","22":"tag-jennifer-hernandez","23":"tag-jim-getman","24":"tag-joe-hernandez","25":"tag-midterm-elections","26":"tag-minneapolis","27":"tag-minnesota","28":"tag-minnesota-ice-crackdown","29":"tag-miranda-niedermeier","30":"tag-mn-state-wire","31":"tag-news","32":"tag-politics","33":"tag-renee-good","34":"tag-send-to-apple-news","35":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","36":"tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","37":"tag-u-s-news","38":"tag-u-s-republican-party","39":"tag-united-states","40":"tag-unitedstates","41":"tag-us","42":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}