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Like manyDonald Trumpvoters, Miranda Niedermeier is not opposedimmigration enforcement. He was pleased with the initial steps from the Republican president in his second term that he saw targeting immigrants who are in the United States illegally and have committed crimes.
But Niedermeier, 35, remains frustrated with Trump. Never more so than in recent weeks, when federal immigration officials killed two US citizens duringsaid Trumpdestroyingin Minneapolis.
“At first, they caught criminals, but now they’re removing people from immigration processes, looking for the smallest traffic violation” to deport someone, Niedermeier said. He said he was afraid because the administration’s approach was not Christian.
“It doesn’t have to be life and death,” he said. “We’re not a Third World country. What’s going on?”
Trump’s immigration drive in Minnesota, and the death of Renee is great and Alex Prettythat echoes the farms, oil and gas rigs, and shopping centers of Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, a swing seat northeast of Denver. A month of unrest in Minnesota has strengthened the political views of some in the US House district while making others rethink their own.
“He needs to cool it on immigration,” said Edgar Cautle, a 30-year-old Mexican American oil field worker who said he’s a Trump fan but is increasingly distressed by images of immigration agents.restraining childrenandseparation of families. “It makes people not like him.”
The Republican congressman wants ICE to focus on criminals
If such sentiments persist into the fall, it willimperialHouse Republicans won their seats by narrow margins and couldwill put the GOP’s absolute control at riskof political power in Washington.
Even a small shift matters in the 8th District, whereRepublican Gabe Evanselected to Congress in 2024 by 2,449 votes out of more than 333,000 votes. His seat is one of the top targets for Democrats as they push to take back the House in November.
Evans is a former police officer whose mother is Mexican American. He urged the administration to focus on deporting criminals rather than people in the country illegally who are law-abiding — as Evans said, “gangbangers, not grannies.”
In an interview, Evans said he was concerned about what Immigration and Customs Enforcement said could search homes withadministrative warrant onlyrather than one signed by a judge. He said he looks forward to questioning Department of Homeland Security officials during an upcoming House hearing.
Still, Evans blamed Democrats for the Minneapolis standoff and the broader impression that ICE is out of control.
“One side wants to fan the flames and equivocate in this space because they want an issue that will continue in November,” he said.
He noted that ICE has stepped in quickly in his district, with less tailored operations aimed at criminals than at local industries that rely on immigrant workers.
“We have big meat packing plants, we have big dairies, we have places where, if ICE is trying to meet a quota, you’re going to see ICE go to them,” Evans said.
Voters are at odds over how to enforce immigration
About 4 in 10 voters in Evans’ district are Hispanic. In more than two dozen interviews across the district, every voter who identified as Hispanic said they were hurt by Trump’s immigration blast. Many — all US citizens — fear for their own safety.
“I don’t know if, just because of my last name or what I look like, they can chase me,” said Jennifer Hernandez, 30, as she entered a Walmart in the town of Brighton.
Many other voters supported the operation in Minnesota, even after the shootings of Good and Pretti.
“They should clean up the immigrants, for sure,” said Herb Smith, a 61-year-old generator installer and Trump voter.
Smith, who is Black, said he used to live in Minneapolis and left becauseSomali immigrantswho provoked Trump’s anger: “Trump is right, these people are poisoning our people.”
Dominic Morrison, 39, a telecommunications technician, said he doesn’t want to see people lose their lives, but feels enforcement of immigration laws is necessary.
“I know everybody wants a better life and a better situation, but if I go somewhere else without permission they won’t do it,” Morrison said.
Racial profiling has some ‘walking on eggshells’
Democrats in the district said they were outraged by the surge in enforcement and blamed Evans along with Trump.
“He didn’t say anything against it,” said Jim Getman, a retired electrical technician who is volunteering for Democrats in 2024. “He’s always supported Trump in everything he’s done.”
Joe Hernandez, 27, doesn’t care much about politics. But the forklift operator and his family members – all citizens or legal residents – fear they will be taken by immigration officials whoracial profiling of people.
“We’re walking on eggshells right now,” Hernandez said as she filled a pitcher with tap water outside a Mexican supermarket in Commerce City, a heavily immigrant town on the southern edge of the 8th District.
According to Hernandez, it got so bad that he and his four siblings, all citizens born in the United States, thought of moving to the property that his family owned in Mexico for their safety. He didn’t vote in 2024 and he hasn’t voted before, like most people he knows.
He’s looking to change that this year, and he thinks he’s not the only one.
“A lot of people are like, oh … we have to vote,” he said.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
