Concerns about immigration, fueled by the ongoing migrant crisis, are at the forefront of many Colorado voters’ minds, a new poll says. But voters are split on how local officials should respond to the waves of new arrivals from the southern U.S. border.
Thirty-one percent of likely voters in a poll conducted last month for the nonpartisan Colorado Polling Institute said they considered the influx of migrants to Denver and other places from South and Central America to be a crisis. Another 31% said they considered it “a major problem,” according to the poll results, which were set for release Thursday. They were based on a survey taken of 632 likely voters across the state from March 15-19 by a bipartisan team of pollsters.
Those feelings of concern were more pronounced in metro Denver, where a combined 66% of those polled rated immigration a crisis or a major problem.
But there was a near-even split among respondents about how officials should respond to the newcomers, and opinions varied about who was responsible for the crisis. Many of the tens of thousands of migrants who have arrived in Colorado since late 2022 are asylum-seekers fleeing political and economic strife in Venezuela.
Fifty-one percent of participants said their view was closer to one of two statements offered: “Local and state resources are being overwhelmed by migrants and they need to be turned away.” The other 49% chose the alternative statement: “Migrants are simply here looking for work and better lives and need to be met with compassion.”
The close result was within the poll’s 4 percentage point margin of error.
“There’s obviously a key question here, which is: What do we do about this situation?” said Kevin Ingham, a Democratic pollster with Aspect Strategic who helped conduct the poll, during a media call this week. “Do we take the approach that Denver has taken, or do we take the approach that other jurisdictions like El Paso and Douglas counties have taken?”
The close result was mirrored among metro Denver voters, who had an exact 50/50 split in the poll’s cross-tabs on that question. But in the rest of the state, about 53% favored turning away migrants while 47% favored meeting them with compassion.
Aspect Strategic conducted the poll with Republican polling firm New Bridge Strategy through online surveys that they say were distributed proportionally across the state. The pollsters also set quotas for demographic representation, according to the Colorado Polling Institute.
The migrant issue appeared to drive concern about immigration in general. When asked an open-ended question about what issues Colorado government officials should prioritize the most, 14% provided an answer relating to immigration. That was the top result, though homelessness (12%) and housing affordability and supply (11%) fell within the margin of error.
“Immigration emerging as a top issue among voters in Colorado follows trends we are seeing in research nationally,” said Lori Weigel, from New Bridge Strategy, in a news release.
The poll was conducted little more than a month after Denver announced cuts to hours of operation at its recreation centers and four of its five Department of Motor Vehicle offices to offset the costs of sheltering and supporting thousands of newcomers.
As of December, the city had received more migrants per capita than any large city in America not located along the southern U.S. border. The city’s online dashboard showed that as of Wednesday, the city had provided services to 40,440 migrants dating back to December 2022; 744 were currently sheltered.
After sounding the alarm about a worst-case scenario $180 million budget shortfall this year related to migrants, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston last month revised that projected deficit down to $120 million.
The city has been able to close some migrant shelters as the number of new arrivals has slowed.
Denver’s approach to migrants has contrasted with some of its more conservative neighbors. In El Paso County, the home of Colorado Springs, and Douglas County, local officials have taken steps to emphasize they would not welcome busloads of migrants in the same way Denver has.
Among the demographic splits that caught Ingham’s eye in the responses was that respondents classified as people of color favored turning migrants away by a roughly 17-percentage-point margin, or nearly 58% to 41%. Non-Hispanic white voters, meanwhile, were evenly divided on the question.
People who attend at least one church service per month favored turning migrants away by a 61-point margin. Respondents who said they never attend religious services favored the compassion option by 45 points, Ingham said.
When asked to pick two among several options for who was most responsible for the state’s migrant influx, 43% blamed Congress and its failure to adopt a bipartisan border bill. President Joe Biden and his administration’s border policies were blamed by 41%.
Meanwhile, 31% chose an option blaming the city of Denver’s migrant policies, while 28% chose Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has engaged in a well-publicized practice of busing migrants to Denver and other so-called sanctuary cities. Ten percent said none of the four options bore responsibility.
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