Immigration — who’s coming to the country, how they arrive here and what it means for the nation’s identity — has long been a top concern for many voters.

The Voter Voices survey conducted this year by more than two dozen Colorado media outlets, including The Denver Post, shows it remains so among large groups of Coloradans, and especially for self-identified conservatives. The jump in arrivals in recent years has pushed it to the front of the national conversation in new and urgent ways.

Political rhetoric tends to lump immigrants into a single bucket — that of undocumented immigrants. In reality, foreign-born residents in Colorado and elsewhere span a variety of situations and legal statuses.

Besides naturalized citizens and permanent residents with green cards, there are also people fleeing war, violence or oppression, who arrived in the U.S. as refugees or are here seeking asylum. All of these groups are in the country legally or have some protection from deportation. Among them, only naturalized citizens can vote.

In Colorado, U.S. census survey data from 2023 put the total number of foreign-born residents at just under 10% of the state’s nearly 6 million residents, or about 565,000 people. Nearly half were naturalized citizens.

But it’s unclear how many foreign-born residents are in the state illegally. Estimates put the number at somewhere around 150,000 to 170,000, depending on the source.

And most of this data precedes the recent arrivals of tens of thousands of immigrants and asylum-seekers, primarily from Venezuela. At one point in the past year, Denver leaders estimated the city was seeing more new arrivals per capita than any other non-border community. And while the pace of arrivals has slowed dramatically in 2024, by as of last week, the city had — by its own calculations — provided aid to 42,911 migrants, at a cost of more than $72 million.

If immigration is a top concern for you — no matter where your politics lie — here is where your vote has the most impact.

The presidential race

Immigration has been a flashpoint throughout the presidential race, with the two major-party candidates laying out distinctly different visions. The president has significant power to shape federal border policy, and set enforcement priorities, as well as work with Congress to pass legislation.

Former President Donald Trump has pledged to oversee “the largest mass deportation” in U.S. history. He has also promised to revive policies from his first administration, including denying visas to people from certain countries, ending refugee admissions and building the southern border wall.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has focused more on policies that would specifically affect new arrivals at the border. She has campaigned vigorously on her support for a bipartisan border deal that stalled out in Congress earlier this year.

Congressional races

Fundamentally, immigration policy is set at the federal level, through laws passed by Congress and orders issued by the president. But for nearly 40 years, Congress has been gridlocked on this issue.

The last reforms, passed in 1986 during the Reagan administration, outlawed the hiring of undocumented workers, put new resources into immigration enforcement and granted legal status to millions of people already living in the country. Since then, numerous bipartisan reform efforts have foundered — most recently, the Senate deal that fell apart this year when it was opposed by House Republicans.

The members Colorado voters elect to Congress will join this decades-long debate. In questionnaires published in its online voter guide, The Denver Post asked congressional candidates what immigration reforms they’d support.

State legislative races

While Colorado’s lawmakers have no power to do anything about the legal status of undocumented people, the laws they pass can have tangible impacts on the lives those residents lead here.

Examples during Democratic control in recent years have included allowing people without legal status to apply for driver’s licenses and to pay in-state tuition for public colleges and universities. Starting next year, the state will cover undocumented pregnant women and their babies under Medicaid. Colorado also restricts local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement in a number of ways.

Ballot measures

In Denver, Referred Question 2T would eliminate citizenship requirements for Denver police officers and firefighters.