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. Our ongoing Voter Voices survey shows it continues to be an urgent issue for lots 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. They include naturalized citizens and lawful permanent residents (green card holders) as well as people allowed to live and work in the U.S. for the time being through Temporary Protected Status or the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. 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.